Clive Simpkins
SOME time back a position was advertised for someone to=20 “bring Parliament to the people”. We need such a person=20 now to focus on marketing local authorities, who have=20 been all but immobilised by the impending local=20
The Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan=20 Council (TMC) intends to free up politicians for=20 election canvassing, thus creating a significant=20 administrative hiatus.=20
In Midrand — and no doubt other local areas around the=20 country — even street-name and number allocations have=20 been suspended “in case the new legislative wants to=20 change them”.
A certain degree of paranoia might be justified in=20 areas such as the shortly-to-be-former Verwoerdburg,=20 aka Centurion. Surely, however, in suburbs with=20 reasonably innocuous-sounding names and street names=20 that have no specific apartheid connotations,=20 authorities could go ahead and make decisions.
Probably the largest corporate complex in Midrand, the=20 new Siemens headquarters, alongside the Ben Schoeman=20 highway, looks very close to occupation, but still has=20 no street number to put on its stationery and=20
The job of making that decision is inexplicably being=20 farmed out to consultants, according to the=20 townplanning authority.=20
It all smacks of a backside-covering exercise on the=20 part of petty bureaucrats, who clearly wish to survive=20 the new local dispensation.
Take the lunacy a step further. Ratepayers in the rural=20 suburb of Randjesfontein in Midrand were allocated=20 street numbers to get away from a very confusing system=20 of sub-divided agricultural portions. No sooner had the=20 numbers been allocated than residents were told not to=20 use them as they were being “revised”. Months after=20 this debacle, the Midrand Town Council has still not=20 resolved the matter.
I guess if you’re as large as Siemens and as visible as=20 their splendid complex is from the motorway, folk will=20 still find you. If you simply want to have some=20 personal stationery printed with your street name and=20 number, you’re caught between a red-tape rock and a=20 hard place.
Risk-aversion has at the best of times been a bad=20 thing. If it’s to permeate our civil and local services=20 and other structures in quite such absurd ways, one can=20 only pray for the future of the Reconstruction and=20 Development Programme.=20
Finding new and better ways of doing things for us to=20 enjoy progress is going to require people with vision=20 and guts. People are never going to buy into a system=20 that can’t even allocate street numbers.
The best way to market a local government system is to=20 enable people to see that system actually functioning,=20 however simply.
Despite the criticism, I applaud Premier Tokyo Sexwale=20 for talking on Radio 702 in Gauteng. At least there’s a=20 once-a-fortnight chance of getting to raise such wacky=20 issues with the pragmatic boss-man himself. Let other=20 provinces do likewise.