Councillor André Beetge’s ward 97 service updates

ONE would have to remind residents that there is a distinct separation between political oversight and operational implementation.

Councillors are not in the employ of the municipality, do not have direct jurisdiction or control of officials, do not draft the budget, have no direct control of resources, and are not necessarily informed of all daily operational duties as performed by all departments.

Contrary to popular belief, municipal officials do no work for individual residents, are not subject to any instructions from the public, and are not obliged to explain themselves when so confronted by members of the public.

Complaints and inquiries in relation to municipal officials should instead be directed to the city manager, or via the councillor to the city manager or his delegate, along with substantiating documentation, photographs, and affidavits to initiate an investigation. Complainants should also be prepared to avail themselves to testify in such cases should the need arise.

Street lights and general repairs

It is no secret that certain departments have already depleted their budgets half way through the financial year. This not necessarily due to maladministration or unnecessary expenditure, but in the case of the electricity department in particular, the unprecedented theft of infrastructure that’s resulted in a shortage of cable, sensors, transformers, meters, and an array of other things.

This in turn rendered houses, streets, blocks even suburbs in darkness and exposed to cloaked crime. It is also extremely frustrating for those officials that truly try their best with available resources, only to find themselves the subject of abuse by the public as if they themselves were the cause of the problem. The mid-term adjustment budget should hopefully bring some relief albeit at peril to projects that would have to be postponed to address the current situation.

Routine road maintenance

Following recently being shouted and sworn at early on a Sunday morning, we conducted a site inspection in Cato Crescent only to find that, contrary to the resident’s agitated indication, three meters of a five-meter entrance was totally unobscured with easy passable access for vehicles.

All municipal officials were engaged in the maintenance task at hand, albeit themselves reportedly subjected to verbal abuse from the same resident. Inquiries revealed that the abusive resident, who apparently has no civil or other engineering background or any related knowledge of roads or their maintenance, remained steadfast in his opinion that attendance was unnecessary to the point of escalating the matter to parliamentary level.

From our subsequent engagement with the relevant departments, we can however confirm that the preventative maintenance forms part of a bigger initiative as can also be observed along other roads that include nearby Hutchison Road if and when capacity presents itself, outside of emergency work such as potholes or wash aways.    

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