A City of Cape Town resident is going into her third winter living in a small shack after, through no fault of her own, a fire destroyed her RDP house and all her belongings.
After two years of sending this poor 68-year-old grandmother from pillar to post and making promises, all the City can say in their defence is that it’s not their policy to help fire victims and casually say they will rebuild her house two years after the incident. The City says the house should be rebuilt by the end of June.
But seeing that it’s June next month and the fire victim hadn’t heard from anyone at the City about her house since last year, were they ever going to rebuild?
While Tabletalk interviewed Nowandile Matolo, a neighbour came in and questioned whether the City will try to move faster now because the media have been involved.
And this sentiment is shared by a number of people through the years who have had issues with the City. They all wonder if anything would be done to help their situations if they don’t approach the media.
The City needs to do better by its citizens and there should not need to be pressure from the media for services and other City core duties to be performed. Whether a story gets media attention or not, the City has a duty to its people.
