SELECTED items from the 370th Executive Committee meeting of the City of uMhlathuze, held on 8 November:
Slow to spend
Council is only in the first quarter of the financial year and capital expenditure is low at R43.2-million (8%), based on a Proposed Adjusted Capital Budget of R540-million.
Concerned about a comment in the financial portfolio report that ‘officials are not following procedures’, resulting in delays, Deputy Mayor Silondile Mkhize said underspending remained the city’s biggest concern.
‘What plans are in place to correct this? Nothing much is going to happen over December and January. There should be consequences for departments that fail to spend.’
Staff shortages and excessive overtime expenditure also came under scrutiny.
Empty promises
Service delivery – or rather the lack thereof – dominated proceedings, with councillors complaining they faced the wrath of the community when projects faltered.
The eSikhaleni fire station debacle caught the most flak.
‘First we were told June (this year) would be the completion date, then December, but that’s never going to happen,’ said Cllr Mdu Zikhali.
‘I don’t want to create a rift between us (councillors) and the officials, but they must stop speculating and making empty promises. It puts us in a bad place; the people don’t trust us.’
‘There have been heated complaints about the fire station and residents are even trying to fight fires themselves, at personal risk,’ said Cllr Pahla.
It was agreed the municipal manager would personally visit the site with the project leaders, as well as go to the apparently failed waste transfer stations at eSikhaleni and Nseleni.
A detailed report on the slow pace of work at the Ngwelezana hall was also promised for the next Exco meeting.
At your call
The City has a three-fold response mechanism at the heart of its service delivery setup – the 24-hour call centre, the customer service desk and the switchboard.
The Corporate Services quarterly report (July-September 2016) showed no fewer than 70 873 incoming and 119 001 outgoing calls logged at the switchboard, which is manned daily by four staff members from 7.20am to 4pm.
Over the same period, the 24-hour call centre logged 5 012 calls.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.
For news straight to your phone invite us:
WhatsApp – 072 069 4169
Instagram – zululand_observer
