Municipal service standards in rapid decline
The DA exposed an ongoing municipal go-slow with parliamentary questions.
Councillors Jos Pretorius and Hennie Niemann addressed a decline in service delivery and consequent lack of action by municipal management, with probing questions on municipal service standards and the municipality’s lacklustre response to public complaints.
Cllr Pretorius blasted municipal management’s response to public complaints, demanding clarity on cell phone allowances for essential service employees who ignore councillors when matters are reported.
According to the municipality, cell phone allowances are approved on merit by the motivation of department heads on the basis of employee responsibilities. All municipal directors should be available around the clock.
The municipality, however, encourages residents to report complaints to the call centre directly, for record purposes.
Once complaints are reported, they are directed to the relevant department and attended to based on the service charter and availability of resources.
SMS notifications are then distributed to registered residents in affected areas.
The feeble response to Cllr Pretorius’ question was bolstered by Cllr Niemann’s further probing of the municipal service charter, and consequent oversight by management.
According to the municipality, response times by the electrical department vary between a four-hour response time for power outages, to a 48-hour notification period for planned outages.
Dangerous installations should be tended to immediately, while vandalism and equipment failures have a 12-hour response deadline.
Water quality and service disruption complaint service standards are four hours on reticulation and eight hours on bulk line repairs.
Water meter complaints, replacement of meters and new meter connections will be dealt with in three working days, five working days and ten working days respectively.
Roads and stormwater response times vary between three days for pothole repairs, faulty traffic lights, road markings and sign installations, to seven working days for unblocking drains and sewer pipes and damaged traffic poles.
The call centre needs to follow up on the progress by using the radio and contacting technicians.
Cllr Niemann’s alluding to a possible go-slow due to declining municipal response times, was formally confirmed from the ANC’s benches during a later debate over upper remuneration limits for Municipal Manager Mandla Mnguni and his second in charge.
Parties agreed that department heads should be held responsible for approving overtime during the go-slow.