A strong residents association is an asset

Doug Grewar, AbaQulusi Residents Association Secretary 2012/13, writes:-

DURING 2012 and 2013 when I was secretary of the AbaQulusi Residents Association (ARA) our activities were reported on the ARA FB page, regularly in the Vryheid Herald and quite often on Vryheid Classified. We also did try to set up a SMS and an email messaging system for members but for various reasons these failed.

For somebody to say that they do not know what the ARA does, means that they are not on FB and do not read the Vryheid Herald.

While people complain about potholes in the roads these are actually minor faults compared to the multi-millions that are, one suspects, being wasted or siphoned of by the AbaQulusi Local Municipality (ALM).

One of the recent examples is the reported R400,000 wasted importing a celebrity master of ceremonies and supplying free food at the recent vote buying jamboree in Bhekuzulu, that masqueraded as introducing the new budget to the public.

One of the things the ARA fought hard for during 2013 was to get a copy of all municipal contracts that we are entitled to under the Public Access to Information Act. Over a period of four months the ARA served the ALM with three repeated letters of demand and met with their senior officials at least twice. The contracts are already in the public domain having been approved in Council meeting,s so there is no logical reason for them to refuse, but unfortunately and in contravention of the constitutional requirements for transparent government, the ALM stonewalled our attempts.

Why would they illegally wish to keep such contracts secret? The only conclusion that one can reach reason that these contracts are illegal and corrupt, maybe having been awarded at grossly inflated prices to relatives of councillors and party stalwarts.

We kept a paper trail of our three letters to the Municipality demanding copies of the contracts and of their replies to us. When we finally came to a dead end we handed copies of this correspondence to Willem Burger, an ARA committee member and the Vryheid chairman of Afriforum, in the hope that Afriforum might see fit to take up the case. Willem is also a knowledgeable former Councillor and financial expert.

When any organisation takes a municipality to court they must have deep pockets, because the municipality will use ratepayer’s money to hire top state attorneys to defend themselves, so the organisation will need to hire top state attorneys to prosecute the case.

The roughly R20,000 that the ARA has collected in members fees would only pay for about two hours of such legal charges. We therefore asked Afriforum with their much greater resources if the would be prepared to step in and take up the case. So far we have not had a response.

This year the ARA is dying. The meeting on this Thursday, August 14, at 5:30 pm in the Risen Son Academy Hall, on the corner of West and Utrecht Street will either be its funeral or its revival. The ARA needs a new chairman as Jan Combrinck has indicated that he will reluctantly have to resign due to pressure of work and business.

A strong residents association is an asset to any community in keeping their local government up to standard; it is also an asset to any honest local government in that it helps them to pin point service delivery deficiencies. Now is the time for all patriots of whatever community to step forward and give their active support.

I have had to resign from the ARA because of advancing age and poor health. I would like to thank all those who have given the ARA their support and co-operation and apologize to any person that I may have offended by my blunt (but honest, constructive and in a good cause) criticism.