Take responsibility

Madam – I would like to add my dismay to our Mayor, Afzul Rehman’s comments “I want to create a model city, where all residents can get quality service irrespective of race, religion or gender ….”, I would like to know how open are municipal books, why does the mayor allow councillors’ accounts to be in arrears for so long and how could they be councillors if they don’t even obey the municipal laws?

Our water and lights are switched off and we have to pay up and have been fined for reconnection, and what happens if we do not pay municipal rates and taxes?

Now why do you not publish all the accounts which are in arrears in our local newspaper or why doesn’t the municipality send the list with the names with the water and lights accounts? This is not a private matter as we are all stake holders of Newcastle Municipality.

The mayor must just take a ride through our streets in the suburbs to see for himself if the services provided, which we pay for, are satisfactory (road conditions, grass cutting, refuge, overgrown pavement, stormdrains damaged and removed by your municipal workers and not put back and so we could carry on and on) and only to hear councillors are in arrears and not paying while our municipality still pays them every month. Surely, stop their salaries and use that money for their outstanding accounts!

Councillors’ accounts in arrears are a disgrace to our municipality and even for our municipal leaders who let this happen. It seems they do not care about our town but only care about their salaries each month.

Just Wondering

Response from Mayor, Afzul Rehman:

The issue of councillors’ arrear accounts is a complex one. Some councillors who have been leaders in their respective communities were part of a programme by the municipality in the late 90s to collect debt by installing only one meter per residential block.

This caused an unrealistic high water usage and historical debt and council needs to express themselves on it. They are however paying their own current accounts and arrears. We have a zero tolerance of councillors or officials owing money to the municipality.