Many people in Ladysmith are up in arms regarding Alfred Duma Local Municipality spending over a million rand on new tractors. Five new tractors have been purchased at a value of R1.5 million and delivered through a municipal procurement process.
“Is it so important to get tractors for our town or rather sort out poor service delivery that people are facing every day?” is the question asked by at least one concerned resident.
Mayor Vincent Madlala, in liaison with Municipal Manager SS Ngiba, decided on this procurement with an aim to boost and enhance the Municipal Thuma Mina Programme.
According to the municipality, these tractors will be dedicated to assist in all communities within the 36 municipal wards.
Three of the tractors will be based at the Parks & Gardens Section, mainly for the purpose of grass cutting and the maintenance of overgrown grass. The Local Economic Development Section will receive two tractors that will assist community members in the agricultural sector to enhance their vegetation and produce.
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The two tractors are for use by all co-operatives within the municipality who need assistance with ploughing.
IFP councillor Abbas Warasally commented that he had no knowledge of this procurement and doesn’t know where they got the funding. He was astonished to find out about the tractors after reading a newspaper article.
“We have poor service delivery in our town and the municipality says there’s no money, so where did the money come from for these tractors?” said Cllr Warasally.
According to him, “There are tractors that work in certain seasons only and go out to certain areas, so why waste money and buy more tractors when that money can be used to sort out our town?”
Mr Alf Lees MP of the Democratic Alliance (DA) commented that the R1.5 million should rather have been spent on improving the poor service delivery provided by the municipality.
“Local government mandate does not include agricultural support programmes and these funds should be used for the service delivery functions that the municipality is simply not meeting,” says Mr Lees.
According to him, an example of this is the lack of refuse services for large parts of the municipality, “not to mention the lack of action taken to stop illegal dumping that you will find throughout the municipality, very often by people who are not poor, have motor vehicles and can very easily take the refuse to the official dump”.
He elaborates that the cost of five tractors at R1.5 million is in itself a lot of money, but will be many times more when the costs of implements (without which the tractors are useless), diesel, maintenance, driver’s salaries and bonuses, etc, are taken into account.
“These tractors will likely be based in Ladysmith and have to travel for hours and at great cost to work in remote parts of the municipality. Very little of the tractor time will be used productively in agriculture. Most of the time will no doubt be spent getting ready in the morning and travelling to and from the day’s workplace at a snail’s pace.
“The return journey will no doubt be started at no later than 3pm so as to be back in the depot in time to clean up and leave by knock-off time that is probably no later than 4pm.
“The ANC are once again using municipal funds to buy votes in the run-up to the 2019 elections. Don’t be surprised when the food parcels start flowing! The sad thing is that instead of promoting economic growth and the creation of jobs, the ANC prioritise ‘buying’ votes,” says Mr Lees.
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