‘We are buffers and punch bags’, say Joburg city councillors trying to help irate residents

While ratepayers struggle with loadshedding, potholes, traffic snarl-ups and water outages the people voted in as suburban representatives for municipal matters say they have become overworked punching bags.

Several Johannesburg city councillors contacted by TimesLIVE reported similar experiences and agreed their jobs had been reduced from managing and handling policy issues to chasing up basic service delivery faults and being targeted with abuse, frustrated rants and even tears and threats by the communities they serve.

All agreed, on average, they are working 15-hour days, seven days a week, with many experiencing hardship and complaints within their own homes and families because of their constant unavailability. Most said they receive an average of 1,500 interactions on their phones daily.

“Not that you can do something about everyone, but you have to filter through everything that comes through on Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, e-mail and all of that. It’s insanity,” said councillor Nicole van Dyk of Ward 99.

“Our main job should be to represent our wards at council, but people are frustrated and angry. They cannot get through to the entities and the only one who picks up is the ward councillor.

“When I went into politics I thought I would be working on policy and budgets, but all we do is put out fires and escalate matters. Entities are failing and we know if we don’t escalate problems they won’t get sorted,” she said, explaining that though she does not have power over technicians, she is the first port of call for electricity and water supply problems, potholes, traffic light outages and pipe bursts.

“This used to be a job for retired old men who attended council meetings from 2pm to 6pm. Now those meetings start at 10am and last until 2am or 3am and then we are expected to be on call and available 24-hours a day,” said Van Dyk.

Councillor Devon Steenkamp of Ward 134 has 16 suburbs he is in contact with through nine WhatsApp groups where he shares all service delivery escalations and updates. On top of this he is a member of 26 community chat groups, six street groups, 17 city official groups, 22 political groups and others.

“Between midnight and 7am I receive an average of 30 messages, but more than 180 if there is an outage during the night,” he said, adding he was reported to his political head by a resident who sent an escalation at 2am and blamed Steenkamp for an overly-long outage because he responded at 5.30am.

“I have sometimes missed eight calls at 1am, but I have also answered many of them, even a call at 11pm from a distraught resident about her missing cat,” he said, adding he does his best to maintain structure and balance to “avoid negative consequences on my health, family time and personal wellbeing”.

His phone stats show since late July last year, or a little more than six months ago, he has received 175,367 messages and sent 25,313.

Last weekend councillor Leah Knott of Ward 89 took to Twitter in frustration, triggering a backlash of complaints.

“In 3.5 days I have received 4,654 WhatsApps, and it is a weekend. That is excluding calls and emails and so on, an average of 1,330 per day. Most are related to power outages. When your councillor doesn’t respond immediately, it is probably not because they’re ignoring you. They’re just playing catch up,” she tweeted.

“Are you for real? 59 hours we have been out. Don’t talk rubbish. You don’t send people out at night. Take a pic with time stamp to prove it. I am finished. @DA_JHB your ward cllr sux (sic) and should be fired for her crap assistance,” was one response.

Councillor Ralf Bittkau of Ward 101 said: “Power goes down and I get more than 250 messages in 30 minutes. This goes on 24/7. I have to put my phone on silent as I get messages right through the night. People treat councillors like call centres and refuse to accept they are dealing with a single person who also needs sleep and time off.

“The main issues are power, water and potholes, followed by robots and vagrancy.”

Like other councillors, he has experienced residents “going out of their way to badmouth me on other groups” where frustrations and abusive language are vented.

“I am a city councillor, not a counsellor,” he told one distraught resident in a group after she described her distress and anxiety about repeated and lengthy outages due to substation failures.

Sarah Wissler of Ward 23 in southern Joburg  said she believes people are frustrated with failing infrastructure, slow response times and repairs despite paying increased rates and taxes.

“People want information quickly and they take things out on you, which is maybe better than on their families.

“I have learnt not to take it personally and let them vent. Last night a resident called and swore at me while I listened. When she stopped, I encouraged her to go ahead and she got emotional and apologised and said she was frustrated and angry. All I could do was say, ‘I get it. I’m in this too’.”

An angry councillor who felt trapped in a position that was unlike anything they imagined,  said they were angry councillors have little more than oversight powers, yet their contact details are public, making them easy targets for angry people. Ministers, who have real powers to change and fix things, have 24-hour electricity and water supply “so they can work” and their contact details are secure and protected.

TimesLIVE