With these words, the Ngwathe mayor, Ms Joey Mochela surprised stakeholders, members of the public and guests at the Draft IDP (integrated development plan) and budget meeting for the 2018/19 financial year in the Parys Town Hall on Thursday, 3 May. The meeting started at 09:00, exactly as scheduled.
By the end of May, the council will have to make their final decision on the budget.
At the meeting, Mochella stressed the importance of the public participation process, while the municipal manager, Bruce Kannemeyer, said revenue collection and service delivery still remain critical issues for the municipality.
After previous meetings with members of the public from the 18 municipal wards, the municipality has compiled a ‘wish list’ for each ward as is required after the process of IDP public participation. Among the needs listed, roads and water supply seemed to be the biggest issues.
It was clear that the lack of clean water, insufficient water pressure, and water pipes and pressure valves that need to be replaced, are causing anger and frustration among all residents.
In addition to this, irregular refuse removal was a key issue, especially given the negative impact the dirty central business area has on tourism – an important part of the town’s economic growth.
Other needs are more vending points to sell prepaid electricity, road signage that is either missing or not visible anymore, street lights that are out of order, and the need for dustbins in town.
During last week’s meeting, the chief financial officer presented the proposed tariff increases for the 2018/19 municipal budget. These are a 6,5 per cent hike in electricity tariffs and 5,2 per cent in rates, water, refuse removal and sewerage.
Although the mayor reminded the audience that the meeting was not intended to be a complaints session, those in attendance raised several service delivery issues.
Among them was the re-opening of the Parys Museum, an important component of the tourism industry in Parys. The museum is closed because there are no funds for opera-tions or maintenance. Mochela promised it would get priority in the budget.
Besides the numerous issues with street lights out of order, and the unacceptable water supply problems, it was asked that the municipality recognise the town as a tourist destination. They called for full cooperation and priority to services like refuse removal, improved infrastructure and the urgent repair of the road surface in Fick, Esplanade and Moll streets.
A high volume of tourists use these roads when visiting the suspension bridge and enjoying the beauty of the Vaal River.
Attendees also urged council to oppose sand mining in the Vaal Eden area, specifically in the light of the damage this can do to the Vredefort Koepel World Heritage Site.
* The draft IDP and budget are open for review on the municipal website.
