Simon Liell-Cock Councillor for Ward 61 has a busy schedule.

Residents of the Far South Peninsula often ask what their Ward Councillor does. In order to provide some clarity I have compiled the following responses to some questions I have been asked:

Question 01 – Do DA councillors work only for DA supporters?

Answer – Ward Councillors are required by law to serve ALL the residents of their ward regardless of political affiliation.

Question 02  – Are Councillors allowed to have private business interests?

Answer – Both ward and proportional councillors are nominally “part time” jobs. This means that they are paid approximately 30% of a full-time councillor’s salary. They are permitted to have outside interests.

Question 03 – What does the Ward 61 councillor do?

Answer – As a ward Councillor I am required to prepare for and attend:

• Monthly City of Cape Town Council meetings,
• Monthly DA Council Caucus meetings,
• Monthly Sub-council meetings held at the Fish Hoek sub council office ,
• Monthly Spatial Planning Environment and Land Use Management Committee meetings,
• Monthly Meetings with organisations in my ward:
  • Simon’s Town Museum
  • Simon’ s Town Trust
  • Cape Town Heritage Trust
  • Simon’s Town Architectural Advisory Clinic
• Regular meetings with local stakeholders in the community:
  • Weekly “Councillors Clinic” in Ocean View,
  • The Open Door  where is this / what is it?,
  • The Association for People with Disabilities,
  • The Ocean View Civic Association,
  • The Fish Hoek valley Residents and Ratepayers Association,
  • The Simon’s Town Civic Association,
  • The Scarborough Residents and Ratepayers Association
  • The Fish Hoek Community Policing Forum,
  • The Fish Hoek City Improvement District,
  • The Glencairn Community Policing Forum,
  • The Simon’s Town Community Policing Forum,
  • The Simon’s Town Amenities Development Company,
  • The Simon’s Town Business Association,
  • The Far South Peninsula Community Forum,
  • The SA Navy,
  • The SA National Parks.
• Ad Hoc interviews with individual members of the public (in my offices in the Fish Hoek Civic centre).
• In seeking to resolve service delivery issues I meet with various service departments including:
  • Solid Waste
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Parks
  • Roads and Stormwater
  • Water and Sanitation
  • Electricity
  • Spatial Planning
  • Traffic Management
  • Law enforcement
  • Environmental Resource Management
  • Property Management

Fortunately to assist me in these tasks I am supported by a very capable and passionate Proportional councillor, Mrs Patricia Francke. Mrs Francke is well known in the Ocean View and Red Hill communities and has extensive experience with the Community Policing Forums. She has the delegated authority to act in my stead at any meeting in the Ward. As a team we carry out frequent site inspections and ward “tours” to see first-hand what is happening on the ground in.

Question 04 – how big is Ward 61?

Answer – Ward 61 includes the area south of a line starting at the Galley Restaurant on Fish Hoek beach, down Recreation road to 10^th Avenue, up 10^th avenue to Kommetjie Main Road, down Kommetjie Main Road to the Ou Kaapse Weg/Black Hill intersection, around South of Capri and back to Kommetjie Main road, down Kommetjie Main road to Kommetjie, around south of Kommetjie to Slangkop lighthouse. This includes the following communities:

• Fish Hoek mountainside
• Stonehaven
• Ocean View
• Glencairn/Welcome Glen/Da Gama Park
• Simon’s Town
• Smitswinkel baai
• Red Hill
• Scarborough
• Misty Cliffs

Ward 61 also includes 3 Major National Government entities – The SA Navy, SANParks and Metrorail – and has hundreds of square kilometres of conservation land as well as the longest coastline of any ward in the country.

 Question 05  – What are the major issues in the Ward?

Answer – By my estimation there are approximately 80 000 people in Ward 61 from who I receive approximately 1000 issues a month including:

• Alcohol and Drug abuse with the associated crime and social welfare problems,
• Poverty,
• Unemployment,
• Housing shortages,
• Pollution and Illegal dumping,
• Land invasions,
• Vagrancy,
• Shark attacks,
• Baboon raids,
• Penguin issues,
• Land use development applications,
• Invasive Alien Species,
• Disaster Management,
• Fires,
• Road deaths and other traffic problems,
• Illegal taxis,
• Property rates queries,
• Water queries,
• Electricity queries,
• Informal Settlements,

 It is not physically possible for one person to deal with every single issue and therefore I do 2 things:

1. Where possible I Log issues directly on the City’s Call Centre  (See Question 6 below for info about the City’s complaints log system)
2. I prioritise issues by consulting with the various civic organisations including the Community Police Forums, Ratepayer Associations and Environmental Groups, Religious, Cultural, Welfare and Educational bodies. 

 I urge members of the community to support these organisations as they are essential to the survival of an ordered society – the health of our society depends on the strength of the civic sector.

 Question 06 – What is the best way to log service delivery issues?

Answer  - The City has put in place various mechanisms to enable the general public to log service delivery issues directly including:

• The CoCT Call Centre
  • Call – 089
  • SMS – 31363
  • e-mail –
  • Electricity Faults
    • SMS – 31220
    • e-mail –
    • Traffic Signal Faults
      • Call –
      • Water & Sewer Faults
        • SMS –
        • Metro Police
          • Call

 

I use the SMS numbers myself and have always been pleasantly impressed with the response times and results. I have discovered that there are many skilled and dedicated City employees who strive to provide excellent service sometimes under difficult and stressful conditions.  Any request will be more efficiently dealt with if it contains appropriate and adequate detailed information on the issue and includes the rates account or erf number of the caller.

 Regards

Simon Liell-Cock  Ward 61 Councillor