Cape Town - While Mayor Patricia de Lille awaits the outcome of her court battle with the DA, she has taken the mayor’s office to the community in an effort to make the government more accessible.
De Lille is challenging the validity of the DA’s “cessation clause”, which was used to terminate her membership of the party, and wants the Western Cape High Court to review and set aside her expulsion from the party. Judgment in this case has been reserved until later this month.
On Wednesday, De Lille hosted the first Mayoral Pop-Up Office in Athlone. The Pop-Up Office gave full effect to the City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan of building a customer-centric administration, one of the City’s new programmes to make the government more accessible to Capetonians, she said. In the coming weeks she plans to take the Mayoral Pop-Up Office to other areas.
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“This initiative is, however, not just about taking my office to the area, but is aimed at proactively looking at areas to see what interventions and improvements we can implement instead of waiting for people to complain,” De Lille said. She started her day by visiting Kewtown and Bridgetown to look at open spaces in the area, and the cleanliness and general state of the ward to identify problems that needed to be addressed.
She was joined by the City’s Women for Change programme, which sees the City employ women from the area to help service requests and combat socio-economic problems. The area’s councillor, George March, told De Lille that many of the complaints from the area related to burst pipes or blocked drains, missing manhole covers and potholes.
De Lille said this part of Athlone fell within Ward 49, and there were 10 ward allocation-funded projects including programmes to improve safety and security in the ward, upgrade parks and sidewalks, a youth development programme, equipment for the Hazendal Creche and the running of an arts and culture programme. The ward allocation for the current and next financial year amounted to R850000 per year.
The first Mayoral Pop Up office in Athlone was a huge success. We interacted with so many residents right on their doorstep and took in various concerns to action responses and solutions. pic.twitter.com/QJJw9msZId
— Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille) June 6, 2018
De Lille will be in Gugulethu today to spend time with senior citizens and residents living with disabilities, and will hand over wheelchairs and walkers. “Many of the beneficiaries are bedridden because they do not have wheelchairs or any other mobility aids, and these donations will go a long way to help these residents in their daily lives,” said De Lille.