Two Bits

A little communication goes a lo-o-o-o-ng way

The huge storm, hail, lightning and rain on Saturday blew off roofs, blew down trees and put the lights out right across the Dolphin Coast. My own lights at Chaka’s Rock were off until about midnight on Saturday night and again for most of Sunday as the electricians battled to restore the grid.
A number of things have happened recently to raise the levels of dissatisfaction in this district and they unfortunately are caused by poor communication.
Some elements of the Shaka’s Head community have apparently decided that the only way they can get a swift response out of KwaDukuza municipality is to throw stones on the N2. They also attacked the electricians trying to help them, which defies logic, but seems to be the same kind of mob action that leads to universities being burned down in the bid for free education.
KDM stopped sending out motor vehicle licence renewal reminders some time ago, but kept that secret to themselves. Now they have decided to switch banks, also a secret, with no arrangement for people who paid their electricity accounts to the old bank.
The Mayor led a march through Ballito because of an assault on a lady teller at the Salt Rock offices following a row about electricity account payment caused by the bank switching. That a man slapped her is absolutely unacceptable when she has no control over her bosses’ policies or lack thereof, but it does point to the increasing level of frustration in dealing with some municipal departments.
The stories about the municipality’s unresponsiveness are legend. Phones ring and ring, unanswered. Letters to municipal officials are hardly ever answered and, most suspect, ignored.
Earlier this year I received a fine for missing the licence disc renewal by a week. Like everybody else, I had been expecting a reminder in the post and completely forgot about the renewal.
When I went to buy the new disc I asked in a conversational way why the notices had been stopped. The clerk, who no doubt had been asked the same question a hundred times, snapped back rather brusquely: “We are not obliged to send out reminders!”
Okay, okay, I wasn’t trying to start a war!
Fast forward to this past month, when many residents paid their electricity accounts into the usual bank account. I see now that there was a small insert on the account stating that the municipality had chang–ed banks, but many people, if not most, hadn’t seen it. Next thing, electricity is summarily switched off – no warning, nothing!
Is that how clients deserve to be treated? Of course not. Behave like that in business and your clients will walk, guaranteed. So why behave like that in local government? Because the clients don’t have any choice.
It would cost little, but reap huge dividends, to send a letter to every motor vehicle owner and every electricity account holder, well in advance, informing them of the impending changes. To this day I do not know the reason for the changes, because the municipality does not believe I am entitled to an explanation.
By way of comparison, I have a property in Champagne Valley near Winterton. The Okhlamba municipality communicates regularly, informing us of public meetings, budgets, rate increases etc. They even inform us of ratepayer association meetings. The effort costs them little but wins friends.
KDM municipality has a whole communications department who pick and choose what information they think we should hear, but are reluctant to give answers to questions ratepayers raise. And councillors who think they are being paid to sit in a council chamber once a month, instead of communicating with their constituencies.
I would have thought that ward councillors would have all their constituents’ numbers and could have sent out a broadcast sms to tell us what was happening about the electricity. Or provided messages to be sent out by groups like neighbourhood watch or via our own extensive online platforms. But no, in the three months since elections there has been no communication whatsoever. I risk being unfair to some councillors, but multiply that by 29 wards and that amounts to a hell of a lot of non-communication.
I do know that in the case of Shaka’s Head, Cllr Ndlela was trying to keep residents informed of progress. It would appear that there were some elements determined to cause trouble, no matter what, but full marks for trying.
So, abuse cannot be condoned. Stone throwing cannot be condoned. Why should poor or no communication be condoned? Something can and should be done about communicating with the clients who pay officials’ and our public representatives’ salaries, instead of being treated like the proverbial mushrooms: being covered in manure and left in the dark.

* * *
“Would you mind telling me, Doctor,” Bob asked, “how you detect a mental deficiency in somebody who appears completely normal?”
“Nothing is easier,” he replied. “You ask him a simple question which everyone should answer with no trouble. If he hesitates, that puts you on the track.”
“What sort of question?”
“Well, you might ask him, ‘Captain Cook made three voyages around the world and died during one of them. Which one?’
Bob thought for a moment, and then said with a nervous laugh, “You wouldn’t happen to have another example would you? I must confess I don’t know much about history.”