‘We must exist’, says ARA chairman

THE ABAQULUSI Residents Association (ARA) held its Annual General Meeting on Thursday last week, and heard its Chairman, Jan Combrinck, say, “We have got to have a watchdog, we’ve got to fight for the things that are precious to us. We can’t close down – we must exist”. Mr Combrinck, speaking at the beginning of the meeting, was responding to the fact that the AGM had been postponed two weeks earlier when a quorum of members failed to attend, and the fact that present on Thursday was only about 25 of the Association’s members. He said in his report that the ARA needed enthusiastic, passionate people on the committee and that “without such new blood the ARA will wither away and die.” He thanked those staff members of the AbaQulusi Municipality who had cooperated with the ARA to achieve a few positive results. He said that the purpose of the ARA was to fight corruption and wastage of public money by the municipality, ultimately for better service delivery to all the communities in AbaQulusi. Mr Combrinck said that there had been improvements at the municipal dumpsite, and in the water supply and electrical department (which was pestered by cable theft), but he said giant trucks were still ruining the town’s roads, nothing had been done to improve facilities in Market Square, nor to control noisy all-night parties in Trim park. The Post Office parking area’s car washers were still in evidence with all their resultant inconveniences, the pre-paid electricity machines still did not accept “Mandela” notes, and the potholes situation on the town’s roads had gone from bad to worse. “The response from the political side of the ALM [AbaQulusi Local Municipality], apart from the councillors of wards 8&9, has been disappointing,”said Mr Combrinck. “We tried for three months at the end of 2013 to get a meeting with the Mayor to discuss progress, or lack thereof, and we were ignored.” He said too that the ARA’s demands for copies of municipal contracts, demands submitted in accordance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) had been refused by the municipality. “Unfortunately,” he said, we can only attribute this refusal to a desire to hide corruption. “Because of our small membership and limited funds we do not have the financial muscle to summons the ALM to court in this matter. There are 18,000 ratepayers and 250,000 residents in AbaQulusi. If we had 5,000 or 10,000 members the ALM would have to listen to us. “So ladies and gentlemen,” concluded Mr Combrinck, “the future of the ARA is in your hands. Please volunteer to stand as committee members. It is not glamorous or exciting work so we need determined people who can stay the course.” The new committee for 2014/15 is comprised of Andre Rheder, Brigitte C Alston, Chris Taylor, Doug Grewar, Jan Combrinck, Steve Vince, Adele Richter, Christo Schwab, Leon Prinsloo, Maggie Steyn, Selwyn Muller and Skhumbuzo Hleza. Doug Grewar agreed to stay on as secretary on a temporary basis until the new committee had settled in and a new secretary could be found.