Many service delivery problems are plaguing the once upmarket suburb of Umtentweni.
In a nutshell, residents are sick and tired of paying rates and seeing the pretty suburb they care about deteriorate at an alarming rate.
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A tour with Mike Davies (secretary of the Umtentweni Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association), Derrick Morris (chairman), Councillor Leon Garbade and residents Chloe Dutton and Petra Rickson last week revealed an endless string of issues in and around the leafy suburb.
Business owner, Ms Rickson, said if she treated the inside of her house like the municipality treated Tweni, she would have no guests.
“I have been a resident in Tweni for 17 years and it has gone from bad to worse. Residents are expected to do so much, now even cleaning the beachfront and cutting our verges. The employees of the municipality have no pride in their work,” she said.
In a paper trail of emails, Ms Dutton has brought the problems to the attention of the municipality on many occasions in the past couple of years.
She said the state of Tweni was dreadful and service delivery was the worst she had seen it in 25 years.
Cllr Garbade feels there is a division between north and south, and ratepayers living in the north are being sidelined by the municipality.
“We know the municipality has a tight budget but it’s the basic stuff we need done, for example, verge cutting, taking sand off the road or cutting trees – and it doesn’t cost money. We are not asking much, just for the municipality to do its job,” he said.
“Residents feel they are getting very little service and no progress is being made with those responsible for maintaining Tweni,” he added.
“Emails are sent to the relevant departments but they are ignored and the problems escalate. Then meetings are held and there is a flurry of activity for some 60 days, but six months down the line we are back to square one. We are merely going in circles. The problem doesn’t lie with the municipal manager but with his staff,” he explained.
Mr Morris said residents are also to blame… as they just don’t care.
“In some cases, residents put their rubbish out too early or on the wrong days and it lands up being strewn everywhere,” he said.
He urged residents to be proactive and get involved in keeping the suburb clean.
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He also pointed out that illegal dumping is a criminal offence and Tweni residents are requested to please report any such action with pictures and number plate identification for prosecution that carries up to a R4000 fine.
Mr Davies said that if Ray Nkonyeni Municipality (RNM) were a business that had to compete for tenders along with other companies, no one would use them and they would quickly go bankrupt.
“As they are the sole provider, ratepayers have to use their services and, as there is no competition, poor service delivery is the norm. Ratepayers are treated like a nuisance rather than paying customers,” he said.
He pointed out the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast Residents’ Association had made the municipal manager, Max Mbili and his HODs fully aware of late starts, long breaks and early finishes in December 2015 and yet this behaviour continued, while the introduction of the electronic time management system had done nothing to improve timekeeping among the work teams.”
Here are a list of problems:
1 Last Monday it was witnessed that Tweni’s beach cleaners were dropped off at 8.25am, some 55 minutes late for work and visitors to the beach were met with locked toilets. There is even a case where a visitor to the beach was locked into the toilet as the cleaner clocked out early. Contractors are doing the work at the weekend that the municipal staff should be doing during the week, for example, emptying the bins.
2 No herbicide spraying of gutters – grass is creeping into the road and destroying the tarmac.
3 Many overgrown private plots are not cleared and become a haven for criminals.
4 Verges are long in some places and not maintained. Bushes are not cut back or the debris is left to lie on the roadside.
5 Dumping is taking place everywhere and it appears litter pickers are not picking up litter.
6 Overflowing and unemptied bins are a huge problem, especially on Rethman Drive, Old St Faith’s, Commercial Road and Link Road.
7 Overhanging branches on roads are not cut, paint is peeling on kerbstones, piles of tar are dumped everywhere and not collected.
8 Potholes are a problem on most roads.
9 The garden transfer station is a mess, with bins not being emptied regularly. The little house where the guard sits is leaking and needs to be repaired. The gate lock is broken.
10 The north needs a controlled place where residents can dump refuse, and residents are urged to sign the petition at the Tweni library.
No response had been received from RNM spokesman, Simon April before going to print.
Visit www.southcoastherald.co.za to see more photographs.
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