Lekwa Municipality gave their input on service delivery issues when the mayor, Mr Linda Dhlamini, issued video recordings on Thursday, 10 December, with a recurring theme of the collective responsibility of everyone to work together.
The Standerton Advertiser published the videos on its Facebook-page soon afterwards.
Mr Dhlamini took stock of the situation and listed water, sanitation, electricity, roads, waste collection, the Morgenzon Sport Grounds and the Section-106 report, in that order, in his address.
“It is our responsibility to fix the town,” Mr Dhlamini said.
With regard to water supply, a commitment was made to ensure water supply is provided in a consistent manner.
Mr Dhlamini said high lying areas remain their concern and an alternative supply should happen without failure including the rural areas and informal settlements.
According to him, management has been directed to focus on water leaks to reduce water losses.
“Council approved projects in June to continue improving our water supply to communities.”
Sanitation was next and sewage spillages acknowledged, as well as non-functional pump stations and capacity of sewage lines.
According to him, council approved projects in June to address spillages.
He added that management is expected through supply chain processes to appoint competent companies to perform this task.
Mr Dhlamini denied any involvement of councillors in supply chain processes.
Electricity supply was called an ongoing battle and the reason given was ageing infrastructure, bridged meters and illegal connections.
“These factors contribute a lot to the escalating Eskom-account,” he said.
“We ended up exceeding our Notified Maximum Demand in winter and internal load reduction measures were implemented.”
A programme is on the cards to address these factors.
Mr Dhlamini then called the state of the roads to be at an unacceptable level.
According to him, Lekwa budgets for repairs and maintenance and management has been directed, once more, to fix the state of the roads, including gravel roads.
The urgency of the matter was stressed and waste collection was then addressed.
Mr Dhlamini referred to illegal dumpsites and said management was advised in October to focus on a cleaning campaign and restore a clean environment.
According to him, no progress is seen.
The matter of the Standerton landfill site furthermore, has been raised with management and the municipal manager directed to act as a matter of urgency.
Morgenzon Sport Grounds featured on a front page of the newspaper and the mayor commented that an oversight visit was conducted in October.
“Management, led by the municipal manager, reported in June that 100 per cent on projects, funded by the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, have been spent.”
Mr Dhlamini conveyed the shock of a delegation, when arriving at this ground, to realise that much work still needs to be done.
“The allocated money has been spent with no work relating to payment certificates.”
He also said prepayments occurred in this project and it was not registered as a rollover project.
“One can conclude that corruption was at its best in this project.
“All officials, whether junior or senior, must face consequences of misusing public funds and heads must roll of everyone who participated.
“Let’s join hands in fighting corruption.”
The Section 106-report followed and the mayor said all implicated officials must be subjected to a disciplinary process.
“This report will never be wrapped under the carpet.”
He mentioned a commitment and willingness to fight corruption, that will be tested by this report, including the report of the Auditor-General.
The Standerton Advertiser has given extensive coverage to both reports.
In conclusion, Mr Dhlamini called on residents for support in fixing service delivery challenges.
The electricity interruption in town on Friday, 11 December left residents in several areas without water after the fibre company, busy in town, hit a cable.
It should be noted that Eskom announced on Saturday, 12 December that they will implement stage 2 load shedding.
It should also be noted that AfriForum and Lekwa Clean Up Crew have been repairing potholes.
The protests of Lekwa-workers during the lockdown furthermore, brought refuse collection to a standstill.
