Residents in the City Tshwane can now apply from the municipality to maintain their neighbourhoods and surrounding spaces by planting flowers, cutting grass in public places, including painting and repairing sidewalks and patching potholes.
This is all thanks to the newly-launched community upliftment precinct project that is set to assist residents, businesses and communities to enter into a formal agreement with the City to maintain and improve public infrastructure within their residential, business and industrial areas.
The agreement between the project and the municipality would be valid for a period of three years, but it can be revised and extended.
Interested parties would be required to obtain the necessary permission from the City before they could maintain their surrounding spaces.
The initiative was approved during the previous council sitting and has been described by Brink as “a major milestone”.
“It should be noted that the initiative is voluntary and is not a transfer of our municipal functions to communities,” he said.
He stressed that the City would continue to render its normal municipal services, such as electricity supply, waste removal, water supply, sanitation, traffic policing, roads and street light maintenance, among other things.
“However, we do welcome and encourage all communities in our city to be part of our project that seeks to make our city work for all its residents. It is only through working together that we can achieve our collective goal of building a capital city that we can all be proud of,” he said.
Those interested in the initiative can consult with their ward councillors to draft a list of service challenges.
“This list will be brought to the attention of the office of the City manager which will in turn liaise with the relevant regional officials and arrange a meeting with the community,” Brink said.
The process would be followed by an operational plan drafted by the City together with the community and final approval will be granted by the City manager’s office.
FF-Plus councillor, Grandi Theunissen, also MMC for Community Safety, said his party welcomes the adoption of CUP policy, adding that council was instrumental in developing the project.
“The community actions included in the policy are, among other things, cleaning and maintaining specific community facilities such as parks, establishing and managing neighbourhood watches, installing CCTV cameras according to specific guidelines, and painting road signs,” he said.
Other projects, he said, would include the basic maintenance of public road reserves, putting up advertisements at approved locations, erecting road signs, and temporarily redirecting traffic.
Theunissen said: “There are already areas in the Tshwane Metro where it has been successfully implemented, such as Pretoria North, the Moot, Eersterust, Hatfield and Rosslyn. A positive and actively participating community will play a significant role in maintaining and improving its environment in the future, which will benefit the entire metro and all its people.”
DA caucas spokesperson Kwena Moloto said: “Given the constraints on municipal resources, each community contribution plays a crucial role in easing financial strain and maintaining essential services.”
Pretoria News