AbaQulusi Municipality – here’s our To Do list

Doug Grewar, AbaQulusi Residents Association secretary, writes:-
THIS is just a short list of complaints among many that the AbaQulusi Residents Association (ARA) would like to see the AbaQulusi Local Municipality (ALM) solve before the 2014 election. 1. Fence Trim Park to stop hooligans disturbing residents with all night noisy drunken parties. 2. Remove noisy car washers from the Post Office Parking to Mason Park. 3. Make your machines that sell pre-paid electricity accept Mandela notes. 4. Set up on-line facilities for the purchase of prepaid electricity. 5. The toilet facilities at Klipfontein Dam must be properly maintained on an ongoing basis. 6. Ditto for the toilets in the Post Office parking. 7. Set up a proper lean, mean, businesslike organogram of ALM staff. At present there is far too much dead wood in the upper and middle levels. There are too many seat warmers and pen pushers who push out mountains of useless, worthless reports and paperwork. Get rid of them and employ more competent foremen, artisans and labourers who actually do the job. This organogram with the rate of pay and conditions of service for each post should be open to the public and the media. The constitution guarantees open and transparent government. 8. Supply the ALM directors with enough competent staff, tools and equipment to perform their duties effectively. At present the engineer does not have enough of these to maintain our rotten, potholed roads in acceptable condition. Vryheid is a disaster and our Mondlo members tell us it is even worse there. 9. Stop the disgusting sight of staff guzzling food during working hours in their offices. If they have time to eat during working hours it means that they have no work to do and therefore need to be declared redundant. 10. Stop endless meetings and work shops (talk shops) that produce nothing and waste public money on hiring guest house facilities complete with food and snacks. Use your own conference rooms and water from the tap. 11. No food whatsoever to be supplied to anyone by the ALM with public money. If they are hungry let them buy their own food, in their own time, with their own money, like every other citizen of South Africa has to. 12. Stop the financing of political party events with ratepayer’s money. 13. All contracts that are issued by the ALM should be advertised in the local media. All tenders received should be published in the local media with the company names and amounts of each tender given and the winning contractor’s name announced. A 5% or 10% preference should be given to local contractors. If local contractors get the work then local workers get jobs the money stays circulating in AbaQulusi. All councillors would do well to remember that they are there as servants of the people and not their masters. Let us derail the gravy train. The ARA is watching you! Stop all the petty politics. Work to improve AbaQulusi for all its residents and we will say Halala!