NRA questions accountability

Madam – We refer to the article “We Deliver on our Promises,” which appeared in the Newcastle Advertiser on September 12.

Far from it being our intention to burst the bubble for all credit going to the Mayor, the Municipal Manager and the Senior Executive Director Sandile Dube, we feel there are other issues concerning these and other projects the Newcastle public should be made aware of, which may not always be so complimentary to the above mentioned persons.

Firstly, if there is any one person who should be given the credit for any one of the projects referred to it should be Councillor Matthew Shunmugam for the opening of Draper Street. It is he alone who fought for this for many years and despite many obstacles from the Department of Mines and Energy, he never gave up and his dogmatic persistence has now paid off.

Despite the energy put in by Councillor Shunmugam, there are a number of serious concerns surrounding the Draper Street project which do not involve Councillor Shunmugam, but possibly the so-called “excellent planning from the Municipal Manager, Kebone Masange and the Department Technical Services headed by SED, Sandile Dube,” and in this regard the Newcastle Ratepayers’ Association wrote the following letter to the Municipal Manager which was delivered on September 2, which up until now has not been answered.

“Sir,

DRAPER STREET.

The Newcastle Ratepayers’ Association addressed a letter to you regarding the construction of Draper Street on 31 March 2014 in which we requested certain information.

Having received no response from you, we approached the Newcastle Advertiser with a letter which was published on 18 April 2014.

We have still not received any response from you and despite the announcement made by Councillor Shunmugam in a newspaper of 11 March 2014 that the road should be completed within two weeks from that date, and that the final costs will remain within the contract price, to date the road has still not been opened for use. The article also stated that the original contract was annulled and that a new contractor was being appointed and also that an independent consultant was brought in to access the matter.

Firstly a consultant, AECOM SA Pty Ltd was appointed to oversee this project. Why was it then necessary to appoint another consultant? Who was the independent consultant appointed and what was the cost for this?

Furthermore, it is now understood that a third contractor has been appointed to complete the work. Originally the starting date was 11 June 2013 and the completion date was supposed to have been 22 November 2013 with the contract period being five and a half months. It is now 16 months and we are now also in a new financial year where no provision has been made on the budget for the continuation/completion of this project.

We would like to know what the construction costs have been to date. What is the expected additional costs and how is this to be financed during the 2014/2015 financial year?Can we please be provided with ALL of the above information before 12 September 2014.

Thank you.NRA”

Many other projects either completed or still in the planning stage had in fact been planned many years ago. Link Road, Allen Street, and the link between Madadeni and Asiphephe Drive being only a few of them. Mention is also made of the Siyahlala-la Housing Project which was to have received urgent attention as far back as 15 to 20 years ago and yet this project remains in the planning stages.

Ayliff Street and Bridger Street were also not good indicators of the excellent planning claim . Another project worth mentioning is the promise made by the mayor to the people of Madadeni that they would be given a swimming pool a few years ago.

This project, which will eventually cost many times what was originally budgeted for and which was so full of controversy, negligence and blaming of “somebody else,” makes an absolute mockery of the above statement of excellent planning. In fact, certain people should have been held accountable, a word which does not seem to be in the municipality’s dictionary.

Newcastle Ratepayers’ Association.

Response from Mayor, Afzul Rehman:

Thank you for the opportunity to respond. I agree with the association that the hard work and perseverance of Cllr Shunmugam has paid off. I, in fact, take nothing of the glory away from him. Although I must be quick to mention, that Cllr Shunmugam himself acknowledges that his move to the ruling party of this council has seen the development and completion of Draper Street!

Your letter is noted, and as chair of the executive committee of Council I can assure you that no additional funds have been requested for Draper Street. Yes, we had numerous obstacles, one of them being the fact that we were tarring on an unused mine, and the contractors, as is normal with business deals all over the world, gave us some problems. However, we were able to manage these problems and deliver the final product.

I am sure the association, which prides itself on “highlighting” the good that Council achieves, will agree that planning for a project and actually seeing that it materialises are two completely different things.

If you were at the launch you would know that we mentioned that these projects have been in planning for decades, but no administration was able to bring them to fruition.

The Asiphephe bridge for example, had the sod turned by three mayors before me. I do not understand the point you are trying to prove, because I am certain that no resident of this town wants a mayor who plans and plans and makes no visible changes.

You can fault my administration as much as you want, but it is this administration that has trimmed expenses, placed more priority and funds to the capital programme and drove home the concept that we are changing lives! In the past five years under my leadership and that of the ANC, we have spent well over R2-BILLION in infrastructure development, and this does not take into account the millions of Rands spent to build new houses in the townships.

We have upgraded sewer and water infrastructure in the CBD, suburbs and townships, electrified more areas while upgrading suburbs, built new play parks and upgraded those in suburbs, tarred over 140km of new roads while maintaining old roads in the town among others.

We are currently building new halls, providing toilets to more than 5 000 homes and purchasing new equipment to keep your verges neat and refuse collected.

Yes, we had difficulty in planning and building our first ever Olympic size swimming pool in Madadeni, a song that your association loves to sing, but we will complete it, nomakhanjani! And while you keep singing this song, we will continue to launch a hundred more projects!

If I were you, I’ll join us in creating this model city, or forever remain on the sidelines of history…