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Speaker 1: Seven o two, A big interview.

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Speaker 2: Right. A brand new feature on the Breakfast Show today.

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Speaker 2: It's called ward Watch. We're looking at the real stories

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Speaker 2: behind service delivery, leadership and community action in your wards.

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Speaker 2: We have the local government elections coming up at the

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Speaker 2: end of this year, so looking at areas that are

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Speaker 2: performing well. We're not going to be negative about everything

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Speaker 2: performing well, average or simply failing. We are talking service

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Speaker 2: delivery issues, electricity, water, rose, waste, infrastructure. So this morning

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Speaker 2: looking at a Jermiston and the complaints of power failures,

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Speaker 2: cable theft, collapsing infrastructure and a community at breaking point.

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Speaker 2: We're joining us in the studio is Counselor. It's the

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Speaker 2: dacity of Equallini. Ward ninety two Counselor Caid gurriro Kate, Hi,

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Speaker 2: good morning, Good to have you with us.

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Speaker 1: How's it Ray? Good morning and good morning to your

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Speaker 1: listeners now.

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Speaker 2: Kid, Okay, So is it as bad as someone making

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Speaker 2: out We've already had somewhatsapps saying you're board has got

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Speaker 2: no lights.

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Speaker 1: So it's been it's been hectic. We've had a week

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Speaker 1: with no power. Most of Jermesten has been affected and

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Speaker 1: I think it's even worse than what some of our

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Speaker 1: listeners think.

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Speaker 2: All right, so I complain, I phone my counselor. That

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Speaker 2: would be you, do you have the power to get

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Speaker 2: things right? Because a lot of people say, my war

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Speaker 2: counselor will fix it.

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Speaker 1: Is that true? I think it's a complex question. I'm

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Speaker 1: very much the middle person between the city and my community.

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Speaker 1: So basically what I do is I would take the

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Speaker 1: artage or the information that the resident gives escalated to

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Speaker 1: the city and hope that the city and its officials

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Speaker 1: will get the problem fixed. Now, in Ekerollini, our turnaround

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Speaker 1: is supposed to be forty eight hours on average. We

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Speaker 1: said about a week with art power a week.

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Speaker 2: So you talk to somebody and then nothing happens.

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Speaker 1: Basically, what do you do? Then we keep on escalating,

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Speaker 1: We try and get our mayor involved, the city manager,

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Speaker 1: and obviously escalate higher and eventually, like as per our

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Speaker 1: current outage, we now land up going to nursefer. We

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Speaker 1: go to different levels of government and we basically say

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Speaker 1: to them we need help. What has the mayor said, Well,

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Speaker 1: the mayor decided to come on site a Sunday afternoon

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Speaker 1: and nedlin that he went to one of our main substations,

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Speaker 1: which actually doesn't have a problem. He was not prepared

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Speaker 1: to come and look at all the vandalism or the

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Speaker 1: cable theft, and he said, everything's actually perfect. We have

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Speaker 1: early d moarning detection, a detection systems, we have security,

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Speaker 1: our infrastructure secured, reality on the ground very different.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's no power, and he will come on Sunday.

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Speaker 2: He will visit on Sunday, So between now and Sunday,

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Speaker 2: nothing will happen.

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Speaker 1: So this was our previous Sunday, So this is last Sunday.

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Speaker 1: This was last Sunday that he came and he spent

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Speaker 1: about thirty minutes with us and said everything was perfect.

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Speaker 1: And obviously we are still sitting with around nineteen subs

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Speaker 1: that have been vandalized, We've got twenty three roads that

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Speaker 1: have had the cable stolen, and we've still got multiple

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Speaker 1: otages that we are trying to deal with as counselors.

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Speaker 2: Kate, is this organized crime or is this opportunistic?

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Speaker 1: So I think it's all of the above. I say

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Speaker 1: that because sometimes it does look as though it's internal

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Speaker 1: and other times it does look like it's, you know,

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Speaker 1: just just a criminal element. But at the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, it's the community that are suffering.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's getting worse and worse and worse. I mean,

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Speaker 2: obviously I would think the council would be standing up

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Speaker 2: and saying, we need to do something about it. What

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Speaker 2: are your fellow counselors saying?

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Speaker 1: So I think they're in the same boat as me,

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Speaker 1: My local councilors like counselor Sally Nane, counselor Wendy Morgan,

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Speaker 1: counselor Jean Ingram and Kunstla Graham Goschbach. We've been doing

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Speaker 1: everything humanly possible the past seven days. I've even fallen

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Speaker 1: asleep in my car, you know, on site. It's been

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Speaker 1: so desperate and at the end of the day, my

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Speaker 1: community are suffering. We've even had a person that unfortunately

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Speaker 1: passed away because her generators stopped working, the oxygen machine

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Speaker 1: stopped and she passed away.

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Speaker 2: But this is criminal. That's murder. Absolutely, that's that's straight murder.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely.

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Speaker 2: Now down to this looking at now, Okay, this is Jermiston.

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Speaker 2: You're also part of the city of Akudolerni. But Jermersen

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Speaker 2: as as I wou'd say city, It used to be

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Speaker 2: a city, but it's not the city of Aquitdalerni. What's

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Speaker 2: the state of Jermerson at the moment, Well, we.

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Speaker 1: Basically looked like a mini war zone, and after the

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Speaker 1: last week I think we look even worse. Obviously, we

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Speaker 1: had our ESCOM cable that got badly vandalized last week Thursday,

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Speaker 1: ESCOM that arrived. They took around three days to get

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Speaker 1: that outage fixed. But once they handed over the power

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Speaker 1: supplied to Akuerdrollerni, we then faced the challenge of now

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Speaker 1: all this this vandalism, all this crime. And you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously I'm speaking on one avenue which is in terms

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Speaker 1: of our power, but every other department's doing the same problems.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, what are the police saying? I mean,

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Speaker 2: obviously the police need to be doing something here because

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Speaker 2: this is rampant criminal activity.

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Speaker 1: So, to be brutally honest, the Primist police station services

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Speaker 1: most of us and the germansten police station, and they

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Speaker 1: basically say it's Ekerrolini's infrastructure, it's their responsibility. So the

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Speaker 1: police don't really help us in this situation.

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Speaker 2: The police don't help you. So if you go to

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Speaker 2: the neighboring police station, what's what's the neighboring police saying.

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Speaker 1: To here, so they are referring us back to the

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Speaker 1: city saying that.

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Speaker 2: You go back and forth, back and forth.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, and remember that my residents are doing very much

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Speaker 1: the same thing, because they're phoning the police saying, we've

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Speaker 1: caught the criminal, now what do we do. And we

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Speaker 1: had this the night of the twenty eighth where a

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Speaker 1: criminal was caught in the act and eventually the police arrived,

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Speaker 1: but they then relied on the city of Ekuerdrolerini to

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Speaker 1: come and open cases. Now, at that time of the hour,

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Speaker 1: Ekidrolerini is long closed. They don't work night shift.

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Speaker 2: But let me just get my head around this. Hold

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Speaker 2: on a second. If somebody is caught doing something, why

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Speaker 2: does the city of Ekulini to open up a case.

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Speaker 2: Surely the police this person's been caught doing something. The

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Speaker 2: police then chie to that person.

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Speaker 1: So that's how you and me would think. Yes, Unfortunately

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Speaker 1: Ekerrolinna owns that infrastructure, and the police make someone from

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Speaker 1: the city come and basically open a case, and as

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Speaker 1: a counselor, I'm not allowed to do that. So it

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Speaker 1: means that I need to find an official to come

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Speaker 1: and report it in order for the criminal to be arrested.

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Speaker 2: Okay, that makes absolute no sense.

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Speaker 1: That's how Ekerrolena is and that's how the police operate

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Speaker 1: unfortunately within our area.

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Speaker 2: All right, let's have a look at budgets, our budgets

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Speaker 2: being spent. In other words, we're looking at potholes, we're

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Speaker 2: looking at roads, we're looking at normal infrastructure. What's happening

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Speaker 2: with those budgets?

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Speaker 1: So I think in Akroleinna, we must start off by

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Speaker 1: acknowledging we're not a poor city. We have the money,

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Speaker 1: it's just misappropriated. We have not received clean audits. It

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Speaker 1: means that there's there's problems, you know. And unfortunately, after

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Speaker 1: two billion, rare scandals and so forth, we find ourselves

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Speaker 1: facing the challenge that there is money, but reality on

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Speaker 1: the ground says that nothing's happening. Now, I personally have

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Speaker 1: you know, been like Auntie Helen Zilla. I've gone and

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Speaker 1: sat outside potholes with an umbreadless. Welcome to the New

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Speaker 1: Germist and ocean. But those, you know, those potholes don't

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Speaker 1: get fixed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, do you have a snorkel?

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Speaker 1: I don't have a snorkel, but I'm happy to borrow

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Speaker 1: one from her.

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Speaker 2: All right, here we go, there's a WhatsApp that's coming.

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Speaker 2: It's from Ilikia says. I used to take my son

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Speaker 2: to college through Jermism. I could not believe the states

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Speaker 2: of the place. Robots are not working, roads are awful,

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Speaker 2: and that place used to be so beautiful. Now it's

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Speaker 2: a ghost time. I must have meant. I took a

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Speaker 2: trip through Boxburg recently, out of my family through Bocksburg

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Speaker 2: to see where my father had grown up, and it

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Speaker 2: was despicable, absolutely shocking. How do we turn this around?

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Speaker 1: So, I think we firstly need to acknowledge that good

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Speaker 1: governance is needed. We need officials, politicians that are on

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Speaker 1: the ground. It's good to have a you know, a

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Speaker 1: pretty state of the city address or to have something

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Speaker 1: you know, good on a piece of paper, but reality

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Speaker 1: on the ground is is very different. And this is why,

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Speaker 1: as per twenty twenty one, when we had Mayo Tania Campbell,

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Speaker 1: we followed a program called back to Basics. Let's focus

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Speaker 1: on our roads, let's focus on our street lights. Let's

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Speaker 1: ensure that our infrastructure is upgraded and secured, and of

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Speaker 1: course let's ensure that at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: residents get what they are paying for. So unfortunately, in

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Speaker 1: today's climate, we have deteriorated to such an extent that, yes,

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Speaker 1: we had nineteen substations vandalized.

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Speaker 2: National governments you spoke about earlier on about escalating the

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Speaker 2: situation to national governments. You presume have done that and

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Speaker 2: what are they saying.

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Speaker 1: So at the moment, we've run a really big petition

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Speaker 1: in the Germanson area. It has officially been submitted basically

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Speaker 1: to all three levels of government, including es COM and

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Speaker 1: nursefer where we're basically saying to them, we're in crisis

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Speaker 1: mode now and we're not finding a solution. Either you

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Speaker 1: need to let the community take control in terms of

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Speaker 1: let's say, wilding substations or or protecting your infrastructure, or

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Speaker 1: you need to be able to give us what we

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Speaker 1: are paying for now. Remember, my community pay their rates

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Speaker 1: and taxes and therefore we you know, we we expect

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Speaker 1: that at the end of the day we will be

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Speaker 1: able to get what we're paying for. And we don't

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Speaker 1: own those substations. I don't own those you know, those

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Speaker 1: cables or the water meter. So this is where you know,

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Speaker 1: the challenge comes in LA in terms of Parliament. We

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Speaker 1: wanting them to hold the city of Equitni and its

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Speaker 1: administration accountable by calling the executive maya in even if

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Speaker 1: it means that it goes through to COCHTA where they

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Speaker 1: are able to say to them, you need to get

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Speaker 1: to act together.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, community policing forums you spoke about the community Community

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Speaker 2: policing forums are they not one solution to all of this?

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Speaker 2: And very often the police sometimes feel overpowered or perhaps

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Speaker 2: they just not doing their job. But community policing forums,

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Speaker 2: is that not a way to go to get them involved?

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Speaker 2: Because them in the private sector seem to be some

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Speaker 2: sort of sort of an answer.

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Speaker 1: So I must acknowledge. First, we are blessed in the

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Speaker 1: Germans and area. We have got a fantastic CPF and

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Speaker 1: they do amazing work. The challenge comes in is that

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Speaker 1: these are ordinary residents. They also work for a living,

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Speaker 1: and it means that when they have spare time they

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Speaker 1: volunteer and try and do the job of the police,

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Speaker 1: but also the job of the city because they also

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Speaker 1: try and secure our infrastructure. Now we've got an area

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Speaker 1: called witch Wood and they have had their cable stolen

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Speaker 1: so many times that I think I can write a

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Speaker 1: book on how many times their cable has been stolen,

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Speaker 1: and it's done to the CPF. It's done to our

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Speaker 1: local security companies that are doing the job of others.

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Speaker 1: So at the end of the day, yes, we know

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Speaker 1: the police are having problems, but that's also where national

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Speaker 1: needs to then say you need to help us with

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Speaker 1: more resources.

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Speaker 2: You see, it's such a tricky situation, such a slippery

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Speaker 2: slope at the moment, and also the last thing you

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Speaker 2: want is to get the community involved. Where criminals are

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Speaker 2: caught and they're punished as well, you need to be

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Speaker 2: very careful.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, this is what happened unfortunately on the twenty

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Speaker 1: eighth is mob justice. In simple words, the criminal was

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Speaker 1: badly beaten. And it's such a complex way of handling

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Speaker 1: this because yes, you understand the frustrations of the community,

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Speaker 1: but you also don't know what it's like, what has

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Speaker 1: caused the criminal to you know, to do that. Is

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Speaker 1: the person unemployed? Is he trying to feed his family.

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Speaker 1: It's so difficult, but this is exactly why the city

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Speaker 1: must ensure that the infrastructure is secured. This particular sub

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Speaker 1: where this person was caught, those doors were opened, they

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Speaker 1: weren't even locked. It meant that you you didn't even

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Speaker 1: make it difficult for the criminal. All that you did.

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Speaker 1: Was you basically said, so let's make it easy for you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let's put party politics aside. You are from the

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Speaker 2: Democratic Alliance, But is that political will from other councils,

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Speaker 2: from other parties as well from the city members of

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Speaker 2: MMCs are is there political will there to fix the

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Speaker 2: situation or are you doing this on your own?

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Speaker 1: So, firstly, the coalition, it's seems to be in this

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Speaker 1: bubble that everything's perfect. Now, don't get me wrong. There

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Speaker 1: is a road that'll get fixed, or a pothole that'll

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Speaker 1: get filled, or a water meter that'll get fixed, but

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Speaker 1: that's not fixing the bigger problems. And obviously the challenge

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Speaker 1: comes in is we've seen how, you know, the mismanagement,

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Speaker 1: the fruitless and wasteful expenditure has occurred. We've seen how

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Speaker 1: the city has so badly deteriorated under its current you know, coalition,

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Speaker 1: And obviously from my side as a ward counselor, I

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Speaker 1: feel very much as though I'm hitting a brick wall

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Speaker 1: on a daily basis. I permanently live on my phone

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Speaker 1: because I permanently have got problems that I'm trying to,

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Speaker 1: you know, get resolved for my community.

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Speaker 2: What do you say to people, though, if you can't

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Speaker 2: fix the problem, oh you're honest and say, look, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 2: I'm powerless. I can't do this because it must be

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Speaker 2: quite disconcerting to get those phone calls every single day.

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Speaker 2: My light's love, my power's out, my water is not working,

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Speaker 2: my roads have got potholes.

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Speaker 1: What do you say to people? So firstly, I take

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Speaker 1: it very much to heart. I am born and raised

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Speaker 1: from the Primrose area, and it means that when you know,

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Speaker 1: when my community are suffering, so am I and I do.

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Speaker 1: I do, unfortunately take it to heart. But I have

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Speaker 1: always said that I need to be frankly honest with

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Speaker 1: the community. If we're not getting help, we're not getting help.

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Speaker 1: If officials are not responding, There's very little that I'm

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Speaker 1: allowed to do. And the challenge comes in is that

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Speaker 1: in Ekrollini we have a problem with overtime. We have

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Speaker 1: a problem that essential services are not twenty for seven.

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Speaker 1: So it means at a certain time energy's gone home,

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Speaker 1: and you know, ANA need to be honest to the

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Speaker 1: community and say, listen, you're not going to get power tonight. Strange.

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Speaker 1: I've actually this morning, I've had a lady that has

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Speaker 1: been sitting for ten days. Her outage started before we

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Speaker 1: had this ESCON problem, and I need to be honest

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Speaker 1: and say, ma'am, you are an individual outage and the

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Speaker 1: odds of you getting fixed anytime soon is null because

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Speaker 1: the city is going to prioritize bigger outages first.

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Speaker 2: In one sentence, one sentence, what should happen next?

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Speaker 1: We need to change our administration. We need to ensure

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Speaker 1: that we work together as the community of Germiston, and

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Speaker 1: we need to hold our government accountable. At the end

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Speaker 1: of the day, we need to work together, stand together

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Speaker 1: and fix our community net learned for ourselves, but for

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Speaker 1: everybody else that comes into our time, because I personally

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Speaker 1: am embarrassed when people from other areas come and look

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Speaker 1: at what we look like.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, da city have Ecolenni Ward ninety two Counselor Kate Guerridor,

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Speaker 2: thank you so much for coming in to seven o

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Speaker 2: two this morning. I do appreciate you taking your time,

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Speaker 2: taking the time to come and see to come and

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Speaker 2: see us seven or to your land. What is your

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Speaker 2: reaction this morning