Service delivery not my job, deputy mayor tells ratepayer

FED up with refuse lying all over her street of Reservoir Hills, resident Ron Naidoo fired off an e-mail to the eThekwini municipality’s mayor and her deputy.

But Naidoo said she didn’t expect the reaction she would get – a phone call from deputy mayor Fawzia Peer in which she was berated for not taking up her issue with the local DA councillor instead.

Unbeknownst to Peer, Naidoo had recorded the heated 14-minute conversation on Monday and then posted it online.

“What is the problem?” Peer wanted to know, adding: “First answer this question: Do you have a councillor in your ward? What is the job of the ward councillor?

“I’m not there for service delivery. I’ve got 115 wards to worry about.

“We don’t particularly do service delivery on our own.”

Sounding annoyed, she goes on to tell Naidoo: “Y’all elected the DA councillor who sits at home and does bugger all, and do nothing.”

Naidoo responds: “If memory serves me correctly the ANC councillor did nothing as well.”

Peer hits back: “Doesn’t matter, I’m not bothered about him. He is not my councillor, he is not my son.

“As a deputy mayor I have come to a meeting in Reservoir Hills concerning crime, now there is no crime that the CPF has told me about. Dont talk about service delivery.” Naidoo asks why. Peer says: “Is it not my job.” Peer tells her she talks about service delivery holistically. “I can’t come to your ward and worrying about cleaning up your place. What you think the councillor must do?

“His got a bloody job to do. Kick him out. I’m doing mine where I am the chairperson of security. I do all that, I can’t pay attention to service delivery.”

Peer confirmed the heated exchange on Monday, telling POST that she was upset that the e-mail was directed at her.

“She wrote the letter saying that the service delivery was not being done by the deputy mayor, which is totally wrong. This is the first time I have seen an e-mail from Naidoo regarding her service delivery issue. It was also totally wrong because she should have said councillor so and so is not doing their job.”

Peer said the minute her office received a service delivery issue they addressed the problem.