In reference to the article in last week’s Ridge Times, “Pump station still not working”, this issue is a long outstanding issue and is just another example confirming the municipality’s incompetence.
The municipality here consist firstly of councillors, they appointed a municipal manager (political) who with the councillors appoint a group of officials to manage all facets of the municipality’s management, who in turn are supposed to appoint skilled and qualified workers and with the said officials is supposed to ensure service delivery.
Let us begin with the councillors and ask if they are qualified and competent enough to run the municipality?
My honest opinion is no and there are many reasons, but let us stick to the obvious one namely service delivery.
All councillors stay in the towns and therefore should be fully conscious about services not being rendered.
Maintenance form a crucial part of service delivery.
It is the council’s responsibility to approve a budget according to a three year Integrated Development Plan and when approved, they must ensure through the municipal manager that the targets are reached as set out in the IDP and budget.
My comment on Mr Henry Masango’s statement that the municipality has inherited an infrastructure that has long passed its useful life, will be short and simple.
Nothing lasts forever, but previously the system was maintained and if it reached the end of its useful life, it was replaced prior to it becoming a health hazard to the residents.
This again leads to the fact that the municipality failed dismally in their responsibility to render service delivery.
I am however in agreement with Mr Masango as far as placing the municipality under administration, will not be to the benefit of the area.
They appoint an administrator, again a political appointment, which will not be held accountable for all the wrongs and financial losses that will occur.
Mkhondo (Piet Retief) was placed under administration whereby an administrator was appointed who failed and was replaced with another administrator.
It will be an eye-opener to know what the financial loss was in Mkhondo.
As far as good financial support is concerned, yes, residents should pay for services.
If residents are not paying, it is the municipality’s responsibility to ensure that they pay and there are several options available to the municipality to follow to ensure they collect the revenue owed to the municipality, therefore there is no excuse other than to say that council is not competent to run the municipality.
It is probably easier to write it off as bad debt than to resolve the issue.
Maybe Mr Masango can enlighten us about the amount that was last written off as bad debt and what the currently outstanding amount is?
Correction Mr Masango, if the council knows who is stealing water and electricity, why does the council not take action against those perpetrators – yet another lame excuse without action that confirms the incompetency to render services.
Please take note when talking about council it includes all political parties, “we are in minority” does not hold it for me.
Blaming the community, will not cover up the corrupt officials inside the municipality who are protected by the same municipality that they steal from.
In short, the council is unable to manage management who are unable to manage the workers which are the reasons for the poor service delivery.
The only way to get municipalities back on track, is to ensure that during the next election, enough independent candidates are voted for to replace the dead wood and clean up the municipality.
GL Botha, Bethal.
