Reporting potholes, faulty streetlights, etc… ‘FixLocal’ (on web and WhatsApp) helps you become an ACTIVE citizen
A new platform is making it easier for communities to log service issues and hold local municipalities accountable, one report at a time.
CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit is joined by social justice activist Mark Heywood.
Listen below:
Are you tired of waiting for your local municipality to repair a pothole or fix a faulty streetlamp?
Have you considered that they might not have addressed those issues because no one has bothered to report them in the first place?
Or, perhaps you don’t know how to log a report?
FixLocal - a new service accessible through the web or WhatsApp - can help.
It aims to empower communities by providing information to help users collaborate with and hold local government to account.
"It's not a panacea to our problems, it's an instrument to empower citizens in relation to local government."
- Mark Heywood, social justice activist
Heywood explains that it is a website and WhatsApp channel, which allows South Africans to report problems to 'the right person in the right place' as quickly and efficiently as possible.
"Knowing, as we do, that in most municipalities, those reports of problems are ignored, it shows you how to escalate problems."
- Mark Heywood, social justice activist
In practical terms, Heywood says the service will help users contact their local councillor, finding out their email addresses and cell numbers, for example.
And that's not all.
"... finding out how to use the media, how to use a WhatsApp group, how to organise a local demonstration."
- Mark Heywood, social justice activist
The primary objective, says Heywood, is to make local government work and make it more accountable.
Check out the service at www.fixlocal.org.za.
Scroll up to listen to the full conversation from Good Morning Cape Town.
ALSO READ: JRA warns NOT to fix potholes on your own: ‘You'll make it worse'