iLembe adds 65 bakkies to insourced fleet
iLembe's fleet had previously made headlines when it was reported earlier this year that lack of payment to service providers caused impoundment of the municipality's vehicles, which delayed water repairs and provision.
iLembe’s water and sanitation teams are now better equiped to reach and resolve water outages across most of the district.
The district municipality added 65 Isuzu D-Max bakkies to its fleet last week, at a cost of R77-million.
iLembe has never previously owned vehicles outright and has been hiring the entirety of its fleet at considerable cost to ratepayers.
It is expected that the bakkie purchase will save R400-million in hiring fees over the next five years.
That number will be dwarfed when including the 30 water tankers, 11 further bakkies and one eight-seater minibus that the municipality wants to insource by the end of the 2024/25 financial year.
Photo: iLembe District Municipality.
“Today we can, without hesitation, say to our people that the hundreds of millions which we spent to outsource service delivery vehicles will be redirected towards the realisation of projects to make water and sanitation accessible,” said district mayor, Thobani Shandu.
iLembe’s fleet had previously made headlines when it was reported earlier this year that lack of payment to service providers caused impoundment of the municipality’s vehicles, which delayed water repairs and provision.
The municipality denied the claims.
Nevertheless, the new bakkies have already made a difference to the shift system that the municipality can employ to fix issues in the district.
KwaDukuza will now have 14 plumbing teams working per day, Ndwedwe 12 and Maphumulo nine.
One standby team will be available per municipality.
The new bakkies are not enough to cover Mandeni and shifts will remain the same there until more can be bought.
“I wish to thank the leadership and administrative collective for seeing the bigger vision with regards to insourcing,” said Shandu.
“For far too long our people have complained about basic things and we could not respond in time either due to lack of resources or having to answer to where we prioritise our monies.”
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