Councillor provides quarterly report back for ward 12 in Umdoni

As received from ward 12 councillor, Shamila Sookhraj:

Governance and management:
Council, the executive committee and portfolio committees have been ineffective in carrying out oversight, to assess and monitor the management’s performance because reporting by officials does not provide full details and the actual work done by the staff. The absence of scheduled planning makes it impossible to render oversight as a public representative.

Electricity – Eskom:
Ward 12 residents have suffered a number of unplanned outages in the past few months in addition to the ongoing loadshedding. On numerous occasions, the supply was not restored after loadshedding slots – despite this being a recurring problem, it has taken hours for the supply to be restored. Some residents were left without power for extended periods and I have helped by reporting or escalating to customer services to resolve the problem. Eskom staff were not prepared to work in Umzinto as Eskom employees were hijacked twice in Umzinto. After a meeting with Eskom, the Umzinto ward councillors, Saps and other stakeholders, an agreement was reached that all stakeholders will assist Eskom technicians to be safe when they are working in the area. The Roseville informal settlement electrification project has been considerablly delayed – according to the project manager.  Work will commence early in the new year.

Interruptions to water supply:
Many areas in Ward 12 and Umzinto in general are having a lot of water interruptions, due to the loadshedding, burst pipes and low reservoir levels. Many burst pipes are caused through decaying infrastructure. In the last quarter, I was in contact with Ugu management and officials almost a 100 times reporting water outages, burst pipes, leaking meters, requesting water tankers and getting feedback to keep residents informed with what little information I got from Ugu. It is unacceptable that Ugu is doing nothing to provide alternate power (eg generators) to have the pumps functioning during loadshedding and the sporadic non-specific information leaves residents with more questions than answers.

Refuse collection services:
Collection of refuse has finally resumed to the normal schedule after the staff were provided with personal protection equipment (PPE). The staff refused to work until they received PPE. Urgent meetings were called to resolve the problem as non-collection of refuse has an impact on our daily lives and is also a health hazard.

Road condition and storm water damage:
Due to limited budgets, roads had to be prioritised for repairs. As the Ward 12 councillor, I prioritised the following roads for the roads project for the 2022/2023 budget year:  Park Rynie Road, Puffin Lane, Dove Road, Robin Road, Lily Road, Hibiscus Road, Petunia Road and portions of Falcon Road. Seven out of the eight roads that were prioritised have been repaired thus far. Falcon Road still outstanding. I have also added Centenary Road as a priority although it was meant to be repaired from Disaster Funding. Centenary Road, Convent Road, Flower Road, Aster Road and Prospect Road are supposed to be repaired from Disaster Funding after the 2017 and the April 2022 floods. Due to Umdoni management not submitting the required reports, it is uncertain when and how much disaster funding Umdoni will receive. Council is still awaiting a detailed report from management.

Overgrown verges and vacant properties:
Service providers were supposedly appointed to cut and clean the verges for the months of October and November 2022, of which a few areas were cut but not to standard. In addition to numerous emails to the general manager, municipal manager and customer services, I have at the community services portfolio meetings continually raised concerns about the uncut verges, poor workmanship as well as requested work schedules and the scope of work for the contractors. Despite promises to provide the schedules, the general manager has not done so. Overgrown properties have been reported to the Customer Services Unit. There were a few vacant properties cleaned in Roseville Heights, but many more that were reported for Ward 12 have not been attended to. I am taking this issue up seriously at the portfolio and council meetings.

Non-functioning streetlights:
The municipal manager has appointed a consultant to do an assessment of all streetlights in all urban wards. At a meeting to discuss a way forward on repairing the streetlights, it was agreed that the main streets of Scottburgh and Umzinto gets done first. The complaints logged with the customer services unit were to be prioritised as well. The budget will not be enough to repair all streetlights in this financial year. I have also been with the consultant to identify where more streetlight poles need to be installed in the coming years.

Ghandinagar Edu-care Centre:
The terrible condition of the Ghandinagar Edu-care Centre is of great concern. The windows in the ablutions are all broken, the toilet cisterns are non-functional, the fence and gate are broken, there is no electricity in the premises for almost a year, and the grass is overgrown. This is the only municipal hall in Ward 12 which many residents use for functions, meetings and funerals. On numerous occasions, I emailed a list of all the problems and also raised these concerns at every portfolio meeting for the past six months. I raised concerns regarding the condition of the hall as well as the loss of income to the municipality and because I did not get proper responses at the portfolio meetings, I requested the speaker of council, Cllr Mbali Cele-Luthuli at the council meeting on December 7 to allow this item to be placed on the agenda for further discussions and solutions to have the hall repaired and brought up to standard. Unfortunately, she did not deem this important enough to be dealt with at the council meeting – in the interim the community is deprived of a facility and the municipality continues to lose revenue.

Residents are requested to log all faults and complaints. Contact details to assist residents are:
Umdoni Municipality service delivery issues to Shanaz Khan – email shanazk@umdoni.gov.za or call 039 974 1419 or 087 2865329.

Water outages, burst pipes, leaking meters, etc to Ugu District Municipality. Call the toll free number – 080 009 2837 or SMS 44751/076 3751895. Email: enquiries@ugu.gov.za or download the Ugu District Municipality citizen app.

Electricity outage and problems to Eskom – toll free number 086 003 7566. Email customerservices@eskom.co.za or My Eskom customer app, Alfred chatbox app.

Councillor Shamila Sookhraj
Democratic Alliance

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