No faith in local government

Drummond Doig, the vice-chairperson of AfriForum Brakpan, writes by email:

In the article in the Herald’s March 19 edition, “Concerns raised over service disruptions”, ANC Ekurhuleni caucus chief whip Jongizizwe Dlabathi raised his concerns about the service disruptions of the waste collections services.

Dlabathi is effectively beating himself and the ANC he represents with a stick with his comments.

He is admitting that the ANC-controlled metro is the actual problem.

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In the article, he admitted there was no tender issued by the current administration.

He also admitted it is not ideal to deny the residents the services they are paying for.

Now, what is surprising to Dlabathi about the breakdown of services?

Is it a fact that the subcontractors are unwilling to manage the refuse sites in Ekurhuleni because they have not been issued tenders to do so?

Does he expect them to just step in and manage the dumpsites without any guarantees of being paid for their services?

AfriForum Brakpan has been approached by the waste site managers and they all seem to have the same problems.

They are not mandated to continue running the waste sites without tenders, and because of this, they are also experiencing problems of not being paid on time for the services they deliver, while the metro is seemingly unable to sort the problem out.

They are issued notices one day prior to their existing contracts expiring that they must vacate the sites, but at the same time, there is no replacement contractor appointed.

We would advise Dlabathi and the ANC metro to go and read the following Acts:

• The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa -Section 24

• National Environmental Management – Waste Act of 2008

• National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998

After he has studied these Acts, it would be prudent of him to study the Local Government Municipal Systems Act Number 32 of 2000.

This will equip him with the information he needs to make sure the various managers of the waste departments in Ekurhuleni are compliant and familiar with.

According to the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, the duties, roles and requirements for people occupying management positions in local government are clearly defined.

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The fact that the municipal managers responsible for the waste disposal sites are obviously not doing their jobs correctly is glaringly obvious.

Why are these people not facing internal disciplinary actions?

Dlabathi further cautions against the culture of hijacking government services and projects by the forum.
This leader appears to be delusional.

This forum would prefer it if the government actually did start discharging its local government mandate effectively.
We would prefer they did their jobs.

They seem to be confused about their so-called authority. They do have the authority to enforce by-laws, yes.

They are not doing this and as such are giving up their so-called powers.

We refuse to live in filth, and as such we will step in and clean up ourselves when local government fails to perform its obligations towards us as per the mandate we gave it.

We will clean our own environments and hold the metro financially liable for our costs.

We have already approached the courts and will continue to do so to plead that the courts issue the local government with a ‘mandamus’ ordering them to fulfil their obligations towards us, taxpayers.

We will also continue to plead that the courts hold the errant municipal managers liable in their personal capacity for not discharging their duties correctly.

They cannot accept the perks of a high-paying position within the municipality without earning their pay.

Neither AfriForum Brakpan nor the residents we represent have any faith in the local government’s ability to run the metro efficiently and correctly.

Their track record justifies this belief.

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Contact the newsroom by emailing: Thelma Koorts  (editor) brakpanherald@caxton.co.za or Stacy Slatter (news editor) stacys@caxton.co.za

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