CONCERNS relating to the long grass as you enter the M4, which sees branches protruding into the road, forcing motorists to veer into the oncoming lane, have been brought to the fore by DA and eThekwini Municipality’s executive committee member, André Beetge, who witnessed a pedestrian exiting the undergrowth being killed on the freeway just before Clairwood recently.
Beetge questioned the higher authorities in the city about what was being done about the many areas where overgrown grass and bush affect the safety of residents, motorists, and pedestrians at a committee meeting held at Moses Mabhida Stadium on March 14.
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“In response, the governing party lay blame at changing weather patterns that result in excessive growth in the intervals between the eight annual cuts which, were actually way behind schedule. This was admitted by deputy city manager, Dr Musa Gumede, during the March sitting of the finance committee in reply to a similar question,” said Beetge.
Not content with the vague answer, Beetge added that further enquiries were done with undisclosed sources within the municipality.
“This confirmed that indeed those contracted to do verge cutting, had still not been paid since January, thus resulting in the backlog yet sugar-coated with climate change fables by the committee chairperson and those within the governing party.
“The crumbs, once again, led back to Supply Chain Management (SCM) who, according to the source, arrogantly refused to admit mistakes, loaded suppliers incorrectly in terms of National Treasury’s agreement master, which serves to force the municipality’s compliance to enhanced control measures in terms of the Municipal Standards Chart of Accounts (mSCOA) by December 2024.
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“Thus, with no money being paid, contractors aren’t performing, and the entire city is left to resemble a jungle. But, it doesn’t stop with grass cutting, as the same scenario appears to have unfolded across all departments with electricity recently running out of cable, architecture being unable to replace as much as a broken tap, plumbers arriving to empty stores, non-functional streetlights and sewage running down streets as jetting machine contractors cannot be paid. The list goes on and on,” Beetge added.
A senior official within the finance cluster confirmed that suppliers were being reloaded rapidly and that the approvals process was expected to be completed by March 17, following which it would fall to line departments to resubmit for the payment process to unfold.
“With money not going out, we will inevitably be told there were savings which will translate a positive bank balance, availing funding for pet projects. The DA will continue to expose the incompetence that serves little more than depriving citizens of a dignified life,” said Beetge.
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