Gauteng residents in desperate need of basic services such as water, electricity, and housing will have to wait a long time before they can access these services. This is because the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) currently has a huge backlog of petitions concerning a lack of service delivery.
A total of 676 petitions have been received, and only over 300 have been finalised. The backlog is currently sitting at 270.
This huge backlog is concerning, as many residents have been waiting a long time to have their issues resolved by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG).
Every resident in the province has a right to petition the GPG, however, the backlog is denying the residents this right.
The Petitions Committee is not doing enough to process and finalise the petition. This is because of the failure of the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID) to complete infrastructure projects.
Furthermore, the GPG has launched an e-petition platform. Delays in ensuring that this system is operational have had disastrous effects, and the current system is not of the scale or standard required. This is merely a tick-box exercise.
While we welcome the use of technology, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is concerned that not everyone who wants to submit a petition has access to the internet or a smartphone to complain digitally.
In addition, the DA is also concerned that the new platform will increase the backlog of petitions as they have failed to deal with the paper petitions.
The DA will be closely monitoring how the new e-petition system is working. Furthermore, we will submit questions to the GPL to determine what measures will be put in place to deal with the current petition backlog.