Municipalities report back

MBOMBELA – The house got heated up at Ehlanzeni District Municipality on Wednesday last week during the Integrated Development Plan meeting.

The five local municipalities had to answer to the Ehlanzeni District Municipality and update the house about their activities.
Chaired by the Ehlanzeni District Municipality municipal manager,
Adv Hugh Mbatha, the meeting had the various local municipalities taking to the podium to talk about their progress and challenges.

Umjindi Local Municipality spoke of their flagship on the visibility study on waste management and their quest to eradicate illegal dumping. “We are working on eliminating the challenge of illegal dumping faced by the municipality.

We will also be launching a project called ‘War on water leaks’ to save and prioritise water and sanitation,” said municipal manager, Mr Patrick Msibi.

Mbatha has pledged personal intervention in the embattled Thaba Chweu Local Municipality. “I have been sending people down to that municipality and nothing has yielded anything positive to date. It is still broke and there does not seem to be any progress.

“I have decided to personally get involved in helping them pick up. I will meet with them once every month, or more if needs be. This will go on until they get back on their feet and are able to work on their own,” said Mbatha.

According to Mbatha, 75 per cent of the budget from municipalities will focus on water and sanitation as it has been set aside as a priority for this financial year.

“We acknowledge that our people are faced with so many challenges that need urgent attention, and we have decided to prioritise water and sanitation as a result. We are protecting the dignity of the people as stipulated by the constitution.

“The rest of the needs will also be attended to, this one takes priority though,” added Mbatha.

In their presentation, Mbombela Local Municipality indicated they would refocus their attention on boreholes and were planning on collecting waste from the outskirts of the city as well.

“We will also erect street lights in the townships in our bid to curb crime.
We have not been collecting waste in the rural areas of the municipality, which is about to change.

“The bus routes will also be refurbished and we are working on putting traffic lights at the four-way stop to Karino, we notice the need and we are reacting to it,” said Mr Johannes Mulaudzi, planner for the municipality.

Nkomazi Local Municipality did not hesitate to boast about their achievement of coming third at the National Green Municipality Awards. “We will use the R2,5 million obtained from that competition to boost the projects and keep our municipality cleaner and greener.

We have implemented a number of roadworks that are currently underway and are going according to the plan.

“However, it must be noted by the house that we are challenged by the illegal allocation of land that belongs to the chieftaincy.
We are still working on fixing this matter, although it proves to be an even greater challenge because the land belongs to the royal family and not to us,” said Mr Dan Ngwenya, municipal manager.

Another beleaguered municipality, Bushbuckridge, took to the podium and told the house that their projects were not going at the pace they were supposed to, but gave assurance that they were getting there.

“Our projects are moving at a snail’s pace, most of them are not finished, however, we are working on finding the solutions to the backlog. The dumping site is not yet in order, waste management and electricity projects are incomplete in other areas,” said the municipality’s representative.

Sector departments were also given the opportunity to present their progresses and backlogs, if any. Among them were the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.