Morero vows to prioritise safety in crime-ridden Eldorado Park
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero has promised the community of Eldorado Park that his team of newly appointed MMCs will urgently attend to their grievances.
Morero engaged members of the community who blame poor policing and inaction by all three spheres government for the high levels of crime, gang-related violence, and substance abuse in the area.
The mayor said the City of Joburg will prioritise safety as their area.
“What is high on the agenda in matters of safety. So, we will meet and have a discussion with our JMPD, they are already here but they [the community] are not satisfied with the service. We will up the game to ensure that in safety matters we will respond.
Morero said Gauteng Community Safety MEC Faith Mazibuko, who was also at the community gathering, has also undertaken to intervene.
However, anti-drug activist and spokesperson for the ‘Yes Eldos Again’ movement, Dereleen James, said they’ve become accustomed to politicians making empty promises.
“Unfortunately, where we are and based on experience we can’t take their word for it. We want to see their plan on paper,” James said.
Last month, ousted Mayor Mpho Phalatse assured community leaders that work was being done to tackle crime, including the deployment of additional JMPD officers. At the time, Phalatse said she had written to both the Gauteng premier and the president to help address the social ills plaguing that community.
James said in 2013 then president Jacob Zuma visited Eldorado Park, along with former social development minister Bathabile Dlamini, and promised to pilot programs geared towards eradicating drug abuse in their community through the National Drug Master Plan.
“In that legislative book, the National Drug Master Plan, Eldorado Park will be the model for the rest of the country. We are up in arms because nine years later and today mothers are having to identify their children’s bodies through their feet and hands because their faces have been blown away,” James added.
James is part of a group that has been camped outside the Eldorado Park police station for 29 days demanding action from government.
She says, for now, the duration of their stay outside the police station remains indefinite.
Meanwhile, Morero has acknowledged that the plight of the Eldorado Park community is not new, but he’s promised the newly appointed MMCs will use their positions to serve all communities around Johannesburg.
“We know what is the problem. We were here in 2013 when the president was here to try and fight the problems that are here. We want to ask you to give us time.”
The mayor has promised to give the community weekly updates.
He’s also tasked the MMC for Community Development Lubalalo Magwentshu and Finance MMC Margaret Arnolds to prioritise addressing the abandoned public pool, which members of the community say has become a safe haven for thugs.
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