DA fails to deliver services in crime infested Chicago area in Paarl East, Drakenstein
DA fails to deliver services in crime infested Chicago area in Paarl East, Drakenstein.
It has been more than a month since Conrad Poole (DA), Executive Mayor of the Drakenstein Municipality, visited the community of Chicago in Paarl East, flanked by some of his bourgeois Mayoral Committee Members regarding the crime and gangsterism in that neighborhood.
This past Tuesday the Paarl East taxi bosses issued a warning amongst their drivers not to enter the area, as at the time one of the taxis had just been robbed at gunpoint. The safety plan as set out by the Drakenstein Mayoral Committee Member for Community Safety during the first week of June clearly is not working, as reports of violent outbreaks escalated since that day.
Bernard Joseph, Chairperson of the Economic Freedom Fighters in the Western Cape says, if the gameplan doesn’t work, fire the coach. It is clear that this Executive Councillor, himself living in the historic white and privileged area in Paarl, does not have a clue on what it takes to keep the disadvantaged communities safe.
Irrespective of some of their own workers living there, the Drakenstein Municipality is now considering the Chicago-area as a “no-go-area” in terms of service delivery. The so-called dangers were not considered a few months ago when the DA streamed to the exact same neighborhood to make sure people registered to vote on the upcoming Local Government Elections. This is typical DA behavior; a vote-grabbing machine that immediately turns its back on the suffering and needs of the poor majority once campaigning is over.
The rubbish between the flats are not being collected. The sewerage drains are overflowing. Many people, old and very young, living in these already overcrowded flats have already contracted various illnesses because of the sewerage and rubbish that has now become part of their everyday environment. Due to the lack of service delivery this area has become a perfect breeding ground for Cholera and other fatal diseases. Many residents went to the local rent office to complain about these dreadful living conditions and the affects thereof. The cold answer they received from the officials was only that workers were ordered not to enter the area due to their own safety. The EFF takes note that NOWHERE IN THE DOCUMENTATION OF THE PAARL EAST POLICE STATION does a request for assistance exist from the Municipality’s side.
Instead, residents mention how the vehicles of the Municipality come to park between the flats in Chicago at night to VISIT GIRLFRIENDS and for POSSIBLE DRUG-SALES. But when it comes to the basic necessities of Service Delivery on which these residents are entitled to by Constitutional Law, the area is suddenly too violent to enter. When the people phone the Mayor’s office, he is constantly in meetings… every hour of every day.
The EFF in the Western Cape wants to remind the people of Chicago and the broader Western Cape of this arrogance of the DA and its mistreatment of the poor on the eve of the Local Government Elections 2016. This is how this DA treats the majority voters who place them in power
