Council for Msukaligwa Local Municipality has approved a budget of R20 million for the procurement and delivery of a new municipal fleet.
This was announced in last week’s final council meeting for the year.
This comes after the Municipal Manager, Mr Zwelihle “Sabatha” Shongwe made a heartfelt plea with Council in October to consider and approve a request for a budget for a new fleet to improve service delivery in the municipality.
The set aside budget would see Standard Bank financing the fleet of 38 vehicles broken down as follows: 11 light delivery vans all with extras like half door canopy, rubberising, fire extinguisher and a step ladder, seven sedans with fire extinguishers, one cherry picker, a crane truck, a light rescue vehicle, a minibus crew carrier, a six cube tipper truck, CAT D5 bulldozer, a front end loader, two TLB’s, a bomag stamper, four 60kW tractors and a slasher.
Responding to a question regarding the repayment terms. Municipal Spokesman Mr Mandla Zwane informed the Highvelder that the repayment terms will be negotiated with Standard Bank and it will not exceed 60 months (five years).
Mr Zwane also said the municipality intends to introduce an Integrated Fleet Management System that will monitor and ensure proper use of the vehicles, petrol consumption and speeding among other things.
The new fleet is believed to be the answer and solution to a number of service delivery related issues.
In his own admission in October, Mr Shongwe said the municipality did not have enough vehicles to carry out day-to-day duties.
This has resulted in tremendous backlogs, which impacted negatively on service delivery.
The purchase of the new fleet will also bring financial relief to the municipality in minimising hiring costs.
The municipality paid thousands of Rands per day to hire a yellow fleet.
In October, the Highvelder paid a visit to the municipal workshop and saw some of the vehicles tyres were worn out with wires showing.
One vehicle’s engine could start with any key, the handbrakes of others were not working and some of the vehicles did not have valid license discs.
The old fleet was seen and described by many employees as death traps and disaster waiting to happen.
The Highvelder sourced comment from some of the municipal employees who spoke on condition of anonymity and welcomed the news.
They said it’s been long time coming but were happy that they would be able to do their jobs more effectively now.
However, there were some who had reservations about the announcement and said they will only believe it when they see it as the municipality is known for it’s empty promises and lack of urgency in dealing with pressing matters.
Mr Zwane confirmed the delivery date to be no later than the end of financial year subject to the availability of the fleet, and the old fleet will be disposed through a public auction.
