Councillors reflected on the festive season and the opening of schools during Sub-council 17’s first meeting of the year.

Ward 33 councillor Lungisa Somdaka congratulated the matriculants of 2025 for a marked improvement in results at the meeting on Monday 19 January, at the Lentegeur administrative office.

Somdaka was broad in his thanks and congratulations, commending pupils, spheres of government, principals and parents alike for the good matric results.

Sub-council chair, Elton Jansen, agreed that the success of the matric class of 2025 was thanks to a “whole society partnership”. He added however that the government needs to step in and help when parts of the partnership fail.

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“I was very saddened when I took my daughter to school. Afterwards when my wife and I went somewhere, we saw children there. My wife asked: ‘Are they not supposed to be in school?’” he said. “We’ve got all the laws, and we need to hold parents accountable for not putting their children in schools. And when there’s a challenge, the government must come and help.”

Children needing placement at schools

Ward 88 councillor Zukisani Sophazi expressed concern about the large number of children that were not getting placed at schools.

“We must do something as a sub-council,” he said. “We need to have a session with the department in Lentegeur so that they can take us through what the main problem that is causing children to not be accommodated at schools.”

Jansen replied that it was not a problem that the sub-council could address unless parents approached ward councillors personally.

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“It can’t be a sub-council thing. Each councillor must deal with issues within their wards and case by case because I agree with you, there’s a lot of children on the streets.“

He added that in the past counsellors had assisted parents who could not apply online.

“The councillors must engage with the education department to find out what’s happening. We can see how we can work together and assist each other when we get cases of children not being placed.”

Christmas lights

Proportional councillor George Paige praised the return of the Christmas lights to Mitchells Plain last year but noted that there were very few lights featuring religious icons.

“It was a bit disappointing, especially as a Christian. We used to have quite a lot of Christian symbols but this year we only had one road with Christian symbols. You know, Jesus is the reason for the season,” he said.

Jansen replied: “I do have my personal comments and views on it, and I don’t want to impress my personal views, unless I enter into a debate.”

He went on to add that vandalism had been one of the biggest problems with getting the festive lights back in Mitchells Plain.

“It was really alarming to receive the report from officials in previous years on how the lights were vandalised,” he said. “There was a long debate on location and so forth and it was rebutted every time when a location was given because of hundreds of thousands of incidents of vandalism that had happened in previous years where lights had been erected. It’s a difficult one because vandalism is making it difficult for us. But let’s be appreciative of the attempt to bring it back and we’ll have to do a postmortem and see how we can make sure that it is again extended to other areas.”

Public pools closing

Ward councillor Ashley Potts expressed his disappointment that the public pools had closed as soon as schools reopened. Jansen replied that this decision was also taken because of vandalism.

“I’m personally of the opinion that our pools should be open right through the year,” Jansen said. “And I will personally engage the mayco members but again, sadly, it’s vandalism that has caused the pools to be closed.”

50th anniversary

Mitchells Plain’s 50th anniversary was another topic of discussion. Potts expressed his concern at the number of events that were all being planned as “official” events.

Jansen clarified that Mitchells Plain sub-councils, 12 and 17, were planning one event jointly.

“It does not stop any organisation from arranging an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mitchells Plain,” he said.

He cautioned though that the City would not be able to fully fund these events.

“There’s a process when you have an event, whether you are a church and whether you are a Muslim society, or whoever you are. If you have an event, you must apply to the events office,” he said.

He explained that these applications must be accompanied by all the details of the event, especially how many people it is catering for.

”The city cannot fund your entire event. It’s unheard of. It’s not done. So all organisations can organise an event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mitchells Plain and the city contributes towards your funding for your event but obviously, the city’s branding will be present at these events.”

Sub-council 12’s next meeting will be Monday 16 February. All sub-council meetings are open to the public.