Please Speak To Us, Mayor Masondo

----- Original Message ----From: Lee Cahill To: Mayor Amos Masondo Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 8:58 AM Subject: Please speak to us, Mr Mayor Dear Mayor Masondo, The e-mail from the Chairman of the Kensington Residents' Association (below) refers. I understand how incredibly difficult it must be to run a big metro like the City of Johannesburg, and I know I would find it an overwhelming task myself. However, the fact of the matter is that the city's operating system just isn't working effectively, and that the contract between local government and the people it has been elected to serve has broken down. At this time, more than ever, your people need you, Mr Mayor - please speak to us. We occasionally see your photograph in the newspaper, especially when you've visited a 2010 site, but as the rumbling about service delivery threatens to become a storm, we need you out in the community, listening to our experiences and our suggestions, and showing your commitment to dealing with the problems that are besetting our city from the CBD to the suburbs and the townships. Many residents' associations in towns across the country have embarked on campaigns to withhold the payment of rates in order to register their protest at the kind of service delivery problems we are experiencing in our city. This course of action is one that many in Johannesburg support, and residents are currently considering a similar course of action. However, the Joburg Advocacy Group, of which I am the founding member, has become increasingly concerned about the deeply divisive nature of these campaigns, and especially the way in which communities are becoming divided along racial lines. We feel there must be a better solution, and ask that you meet with myself and a few members of our group to discuss these. We have some concrete proposals, drawn from our collective experience in the corporate sector, that we feel would enable us to begin to bridge the gap between the city and its residents, to find some solutions to the many problems we are experiencing on a day-to-day basis, and to focus on building a city we can all be proud of as a united community. Please, Mr Mayor, I am writing to you in the spirit of co-operation and with sincere commitment to taking simple, practical action in order to address our city's problems. Please give us an hour of your time to hear what we have to propose. I can be contacted on 011 614 0690 to set up a time, and hope to hear from your office soon. Thank you and kind regards, Lee Cahill Lee Cahill (Ms) Founding Member: Joburg Advocacy Group P.O. Box 28557 Kensington 2101 Tel: 011 614 0690 e-Mail: [email protected]

INCOMING AND OUTGOING MAIL SCANNED BY AVG ANTI VIRUS AND ANTI SPAM

PRIVATE, PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL. The information contained in this e-mail and in any attachments is confidential and intended for the designated recipient(s) only. If you are not a designated recipient, you may not forward, use, copy, publish, transmit or rely on the information in this mail in any way. If you have received the mail in error, please notify the sender and then delete it permanently. Thank you.

----- Original Message ----From: Brendon Burmester To: Oscar Oliphant ; [email protected] ; Carol Milner ; DANIE ; Clr. Victor Penning ; [email protected] ; Captain Leslie Bowler ; carlos da rocha ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; Colm ; Lynn L. McKay ; Lee Cahill ; [email protected] ; chitra ; Shierly Ancer ; Clr. Amos Masondo ; Daniel Walter Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:40 PM Subject: Fwd: FW: car breaking Jupiter St, Kensington Good evening, It is with increasing despair that I mail you! I must start by asking what is actually happening in Johannesburg. I spent time driving around town outside of Kensington in Rosebank, Sunninghill. Sandton, Bez Valley, Observatory and our city is in a mess - weeds, litter, people driving like maniacs and, to top it all, ANOTHER murder in Highland Road. Where are the guys cleaning the pavements, removing weeds and trimming trees? Can someone please be upfront with the ratepayers of this city and explain why we are in such a mess? Following on from that comment I need to ask, what are we doing about preparing for 2010 - has the Metro council forgotten about the event? In the time I've been here Johannesburg has never looked this tatty?? We have logged calls asking for the replacement of drain covers and I see that this problem is spreading through out our area. The famous Carte Blanche drain cover has been removed in Cumberland Road, the illegal signage is mushrooming around all over, I have personally requested that the pavement be properly reinstated along Kitchener near Rhodes Park (that must be more than four months ago now), the road surfacing in Queens Street is ever deteriorating - ag I can go on and on! Please will someone explain why after my recent visit to Cape Town, I feel as if we are being SERIOUSLY ripped off by this incompetant council? Why are their roads in far better condition, their streets cleaner, street trading in that city well controlled? And why are we being held randsom in our own homes by criminals? To the Mayor: well, as per the previous mail I sent to you - and judging by your enthusiastic lack of response - I suppose you really don't care about the very suburb you live in. I would be incredibly impressed if you came out of your ivory tower and actually met with the residents of this area to listen to their concerns. To date, we have not seen you at any community meetings etc. You are a resident and I'm sure read the paper, so surley you would know of the meetings that the residents association hold? To end this off, we will be supporting an intiative lead by a Kensington resident to make people aware of the devastating effect crime is having on our comnmunity, please see her mail: One of our guards on our neighbourhood watch, Clifford Phakati, was attacked in Highland Road, Kensington on Thursday night by eight armed men. He died on Saturday from his injuries. I have tied a

big red ribbon around our tree on our pavement in his memory, with an explanatory note attached. I urge you all to do the same. Join the "Tie a red ribbon around your tree" initiative - more in our discussion group on Facebook. It has been a week from hell: Fergus's office hit last Monday; Kezi's offices hit last Thursday; an elderly neighbour mugged in broad daylight in his driveway; the tragic hijacking a couple of weeks ago; and now this. I love this country. I am frustrated with this country. I do not know what to do with my anger and sadness but I do hope that rows and rows of beautiful Kensington trees wrapped in red fabric with people's own notes on them will make criminals think twice, may alert our little village that we are under attack, or maybe just may make us look out for each other a little more. Please forward this to anyone you know in Kensington. Finally, please note that we will be having an open community meeting to discuss the crime probelm in our area, and to put forward ideas for some community-based initiatives to fight this problem: When: 10 November 2009 Where: Kensington Community Centre, Rhodes Park (use Orlando Street entrance) Time: 19:00 Regards, Brendon Burmester Chairperson of the Kensington Residents Association