City of Mbombela Local Municipality give overview on their municipal vehicles
Mbombela residents have voiced their concern over the state of the CMLM municipal vehicles following a social media post, allegedly showing a cherry picker with one wheel.
The post, accompanied by two photos of this cherry picker, was posted on the Mbombela Water and Electricity Facebook page, garnering multiple comments from frustrated residents surrounding the municipal fleet.
However, municipal spokesperson, Joseph Ngala has said while CMLM does have its challenges with some of the vehicles, there are plans under way to strengthen the fleet.
Earlier this week, a post on the Mbombela Water and Electricity Facebook page said there was concern over “the council vehicles being in desperate need of attention” and that the “energy (department) has one bakkie shared by all the shifts and is the only transport they have”.
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White River councillor, Rowan Torr said he had heard reports from the ground that the municipal vehicles in CMLM are not operating as they should and that many were broken or being used when they should be deemed unroadworthy.
Torr said he had seen the cherry picker belonging to the White River area and that it only had one wheel on its rear axle.
Ngala, however, said the energy department in White River has four bakkies, two of which are working, while the other two are in for repairs at Truck Service City.
He said the two broken bakkies are in line to be repaired as the service provider has a problem with the CSD (central supplier database), thus the municipality cannot issue orders for them to be fixed yet.
He said CMLM has a total of four cherry pickers; two in Mbombela, one in White River and one in Barberton. He did not say that they were not functioning.
“There has been a shortage of vehicles in the water and sanitation department servicing the Nsikazi and Hazyview area,” said Ngala.
“A number of vehicles were purchased in the 2018/19 financial year. These were meant to alleviate the shortage. In the same year, the staff which was attached to Rand Water was transferred to the City of Mbombela, which meant the problem was exacerbated.
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“In the 2020/21 financial year, there is an allocation to purchase 16 vehicles for this department. The bid has been advertised for the purchase of these and it will close on September 2 (Wednesday).”
DA councillor, Sanley van der Merwe said according to sources in the energy department, the response from the municipality was fair and correct.
