RATEPAYERS are now confident that both South Coast municipalities are genuinely doing their best to rectify a ‘plethora of problems’ created by poor management of old.
Although the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association feels justified in taking much of the credit for putting pressure on the municipalities, they are satisfied that the long-awaited service charter that is in place… is working.
Many people concur that that they have noticed improvements to services.
Speaking at the association’s AGM, Bruce Hulley said they had a good working relationship with both Hibiscus Coast Municipality and Ugu District Municipality.
“I am of the opinion that we have gone beyond the stage of being aggressive in all our dealings. I believe we have two municipal managers who are genuinely trying their best to rectify the plethora of problems created by the poor management of the municipalities over nearly 20 years.
“I further believe if we approach our dealings with the municipalities with an attitude of co-operation and a willingness to help put things right, together we can turn this district around,” he said.
According to the charter launched by Hibiscus Coast municipal manager, Max Mbili, last year:
* The municipality would acknowledge receipt of complaints within 48 hours (excluding weekends) and the relevant department would indicate how it would address the complaints within 10 working days;
* The municipality would repair 24 000 sq m of potholes every quarter;
* Verges would be cut once a month;
* Street lights would be repaired within 10 days;
* Broken traffic light bulbs would be replaced within 48 hours;
* Refuse would be collected once a week for residents and businesses;
* Central business districts and main roads and illegal dump sites would be cleared of litter daily.
The municipality also undertook to pass plans for buildings less than 500 sq.m in size within four weeks of submission and, for bigger buildings, within eight weeks.
The municipality would institute methods of measuring its workers’ productivity, with the object of achieving 90 percent productivity by June 30. By-laws would be consolidated and finalised and officials trained to enforce them by June 30 this year.
Mr Hulley said there had been a measurable improvement in service delivery. The main breakdown appeared to have been the monitoring of those involved, but a software package would soon be implemented to provide effective monitoring tools for management.
The association met with Hibiscus Coast officials in March last year to discuss the current budget. Their many concerns included the proposed three percent increase in operating expenditure and that the five percent increase in people cost represented an unacceptable 55 percent of the operating expenditure budget. There was also an error in the totals of R40-million.
Subsequently, Mr Mbili promised that a professional organisation would help the municipality to achieve more realistic staffing and to achieve the 90 percent productivity by June this year. While he would work towards reducing people costs to 35 percent or less, this would take a few years to achieve. The cause for the R40-million anomaly was found and corrected..
Ratepayers held regular meetings with Hibiscus Coast heads of department during the last year and many concerns had been addressed. The association had also met Ugu District municipal manager DD Naidoo and heads of department during the year and had expressed satisfaction about the way Mr Naidoo had tackled problems.
Mr Hulley reported that he had put plans in place to improve staff efficiency, reduce costs, upgrade the water pipe delivery system, cope with estimated peak demands for next 20 years and upgrade water purification plants. These included a meter audit, the identification and prosecution of illegal water users, education on the proper use of sewage disposal systems and the updating of the telemetry systems. Higher than average water tariffs would receive consideration this year.
Finally, Mr Hulley expressed concern about poor attendances at his association’s meetings during the year, but thanked his supporters and wished the new committee success.
