I have to sue DA-run City of Joburg so that it can do its job

ANNA Cox’s Metro column sadly but accurately reported on the continued deterioration of the inner city under the DA local government.

The situation extends to the Metro’s boundaries.

In Princess, we have smashed manholes in the roadway, which pose a danger; failed street lighting and massive illegal land use by formal commerce. The council does nothing.

I met mayor Herman Mashaba in the run-up to the municipal elections and briefed him on the illegal land uses around me.

In December 2017, I wrote to him, reminding him of the financial harm it was having on my legal business, and the emotional and psychological harm it was causing my family and I.

There should be no need for any litigation as we have a council with the power and resources to stop what is obviously wrong.

Instead, I find myself having to take the council to court to force it to do its job. And then it plays its delaying legal games. Guess who pays the council’s legal fees?

In spite of my urging him to act, Mashaba has never answered my letter.

The council is violating town planning legislation and its duties under the Constitution, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act and a host of other laws. It is also violating previous high court orders.

In physical terms, it is presiding over an urban environment where chaos replaces the harmony intended by lawmakers.

The DA in Joburg is simply continuing the long tradition of a rotten local government.

KENNETH ROY CORLETT Princess