Leon Alhadeff, Table View
I created the Table View Frustrated Residents and Rate Payers Facebook page in April 2015 as a community initiative to hold government accountable.
Although this portal has been used previously by the TVRA to champion various issues, this portal is a private initiative.
Allegations that this portal was hijacked for political purposes are far from factual and are among one of many that have surfaced over the past three weeks to challenge my good standing in this community.
It is a matter of public record that no political posts were permitted and or featured within this portal before the May 25 political post poll and after the political blog announcement on May 26. Collectively this poll and this announcement resulted in 29 positive reactions and 14 comments, that were all noted as being positive.
Anwar Adams from the PAC; Henk Hugo, Nicky Rheeder, Nora Grose, Joy McCarthy from the DA; as well as Mike Channing and Kelly Lee Rau, from the ACDP; were tagged and invited publicly to participate.
Various posts from the various political organisations that did make use of this portal were featured, while others chose not to.
Mr Ralph has created the perception that this portal was for the exclusive use of the ACDP, clearly an untruth. The writer also fails to highlight this portal was also used for voter education.
Mr Ralph also alleges I deleted his post because I was scared of others seeing what was written and that the post was deleted before many had the opportunity to read it and that rather than there being debate there was just a lot of name calling initiated by either myself and or my “pals”.
The hard reality here is that although the writer was effectively removed from this portal, his post was not and as such remains visible today in its entirety.
Much to my amazement, this post was edited and had been liked by 17 people with no comment from myself or any of my “pals”, negative or otherwise.
A cursory glance of the forwarded post clearly highlights that comments were not permitted by the writer himself.
The allegations that he is a “troll”, “narcissist” and “stupid”, in response to his comments are, however, most regretted, but not for want of trying, am I able to locate any comment wherein he is referred to as being the “antichrist”.
The TVRA petitioned the City to effectively manage the loitering vagrants, the illegal taxis, illegal informal traders and of course to attend to the ongoing challenge in terms of the litter.
To state we canvassed for votes on the premise that we would “disappear” these issues, does need to be challenged as it is simply not true.
Our election promise was one that was deliverable, as we promised to ensure that the voice of this community was heard by the City.
The fact that we collectively did not garner significant support is a sad reality, but it is part of the democratic process and far from making excuses and or licking our wounds, let it be known that we are very proud of what has been achieved.
* Tabletalk sent the letter to Mike Channing who said he reserved the right to respond in the future. “At the moment, I choose not to respond,” he said.
