Executive Mayor of the Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM), Councillor Gladys Khoza addressed the biggest challenges among other things during her State of the City Address (SOCA) on Friday May 20 at the Westonaria Sports Complex.
Khoza, who said her purpose was to recommit the administration to its mandate, promised residents that they’d take strides in dealing with services delivery, minimising unemployment, fast-tracking housing projects, eradicating corruption, increasing their revenue collections, maintaining municipal buildings, building the local economy, and coming to an agreement with Eskom.
When addressing the biggest sources of frustration to the residents, such as potholes, Khoza said they’d joined hands with the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport to fill potholes, do road markings, clear vegetation, put up signage and fix traffic lights.
Khoza admitted that while the roads continued to remain a ‘perennial’ challenge, they’d continue to prioritise turning around the state of the road infrastructure. Roads identified to be the worst are in Helikonpark, Greenhills and Randgate. Roads have been rehabilitated in Toekomsrus, Mohlakeng, Finsbury and Kocksoord.
New roads were constructed in Mohlakeng Extension 4; in Simunye and Zuurbekom internal roads were built; and an access road to the cemetery in Westonaria was constructed.”
Khoza said the municipality was facing several challenges …
• It experiences immense financial constraints
• Treasury declared the funded budget not to be credible
• The culture of non-payment by communities is rife and poses a threat to the sustainability of the institution and service delivery
• Capital expenditure report and the management of grants are not up to standard
• Its billing system needs to be improved
Earlier this year the Municipality revealed their R732 million debt with Eskom and attributed their challenges to not being able to collect revenue from its indigent residents.
The credit control measures have commenced largely with the general cooperation of the community, and our collection rate is steadily increasing. I wish to acknowledge and express appreciation towards areas where the payment for services is almost 100%.”
A total of 182 434 warning notices have been sent to account holders who are in arrears, and 7 057 electricity and water service terminations were executed since the beginning of the 2021/22 financial year from July 2021 to April 2022.
“As a subsequence of the terminations 3 633 service reconnections were completed. A total of 3 672 service connection inspections were also executed to inspect illegal and suspected bypassed meters.”
The credit collections policy also provides relief for clients who cannot settle the outstanding amounts at once, allowing them to pay the owing balance over a period of time.
She said the municipal maintenance programme, entailing among others grass cutting, weeding, litter picking and pruning of street trees, was often impeded by challenges involving personnel, and repairing and replacing equipment.
Khoza also spoke about the increasing issue of illegal dumping across Rand West City; which she said was turning the town into an eyesore.
“As part of finding a solution to the matter, every household in Rand West City must have a litter bin, and a dedicated team must be established to attend to illegal dumping spots daily.
“We are also in the process of appointing officers to enforce municipal by-laws to curb the scourge of illegal dumping in our localities. We should also step up and consistently clean our CBDs, especially parking lots, road islands, taxi ranks and public ablution facilities.
To the people of Rand West City: I am your servant. We are your servants. We will do our utmost to serve you with distinction and commitment,” Khoza ended her speech.
