HCM takes Herald to task…branch manager responds

Good Morning,

Your below query and the recent past articles from your goodselves and in particular Ms Shona Aylward bear reference and it would be appreciated if this response can be published in verbatim…

I wish to first start by saying that it is very fascinating that whilst we have a working customer services system and residents are using it as at an average we receive about 20 complaints a day which are processed to the satisfactory of the majority of the residents and now all of a sudden there are those who are taking their concerns or complains to the media and to your media house in particular.

Further to this, we have been receiving appreciation by individual residents and community leaders for overall meaningful improvement of services provided by HCM over the last 24 months let alone handling of customer complaints. (of which if you need examples of those one can gladly forward to you).

In addition to this fascinating state of affairs, for the last 2 weeks and in particular the same Shona Aylward, through her articles, has painted a picture of a government with no order, with its employees using state resources to benefit themselves, law enforcers being law unto themselves and residents panicking as a results of a deteriorating service delivery by the current administration, and here are some examples of her articles painting this picture: “Sheppie becoming a dump”, “The terrible state of Margate’s Homestead…”, “Merlewood residents fear their suburb will also deteriorate”, “Abuse of state vehicles”, etc. And some of these were summarised in the front page of last week paper under the headline, “Stop the Rot”

And now to make us to be more intrigued and eventually be suspicious of a vendetta, the same journalist/reporter, visits our lifeguard rooms taking photos after having misled the lifeguards by claiming to be one of the Hibiscus Coast Municipality employees, and now claims that she made these visits “after she was informed by members of the public that there were issues at the towers”.

We cannot see any reasons why our lifeguards would claim that she said she is an HCM employee whilst on the contrary she’s got all the reasons not to be honest with her identity because she knew that she had not sought authority from the municipality to get to our premises as an external person, a request that would not have been unduly withheld and having the knowledge of where to sought this authority.

All this raises the following questions; Is this just a coincident that all this is happening when we are only a few months to the 2016 Local Government Elections, which are due to take place between 18 May and 16 August 2016? Why all of a sudden there is a change in the nature of issues covered on HCM and government in general? Who stands to benefit from such a skewed picture displayed of the current administration? These are just some of the questions we are asking them about the stance taken by your newspaper and this particular journalist.

Having said that we wish to reiterate what we once said in the meeting with the management of the South Coast Herald; we respect and appreciate the freedom of the press/media provided for by the Constitution but we have a problem when this is abused to benefit an interest of a certain grouping. We are not asking or expecting that you be our alliance partner but neither do we expect you, with your supposed independence to act as a mouthpiece of any grouping interests. It is fair to say that the principle of the freedom of media should never be used for any political agenda.

Let one conclude by saying that the municipality has Service Level Agreements with the Lifeguards Companies which include rules of engagements on issues like the ones you seem to be highlighting and have less to do with members of the public of which if they (the public) have issues, the municipality has a functional system to deal with complaints from the public.

Regards,

Simon M April

Senior Manager: Mayoralty and Communications

Hibiscus Coast Municipality

HERALD’S RESPONSE

Dear Mr April

Good morning to you too. Seeing that you requested that your response should be published verbatim, we have obliged.

However, I must point out that you have done the very thing that aggrieves you about irate ratepayers: Run to the press to voice your own grievances instead of taking them up with me personally.

Is this also just a coincidence with local elections coming up?

We would like to make it clear that we have no vendetta or plan to antagonise you, the municipality or any political party. We agree that HCM’s services have improved considerably and we commend you for that.

However, the quest for excellence is a never-ending story and we would be neglecting our job if we basically brushed ratepayer concerns under the carpet… just because it’s election time. We suggest that HCM should see these stories as a ‘heads up’ and react positively, rather than shoot the messenger.

No political agenda

Firstly, your suggestion that the Herald and Shona Aylward in particular have political agendas is ridiculous. In truth, we have absolutely no interest in who wins the forthcoming local government elections. Anyway, we have no doubt that the ANC (whom you represent as a branch chairman in addition to your job as HCM spokesman) will come in with a landslide victory once again.

We have no issue with that as we accept that this is a democracy and the vast majority of our citizens (including many of our own staff) are proudly ANC.

It is universally accepted that any newspaper is a watchdog and a mouthpiece for the communities they serve, for people to voice their concerns… or praise, both of which we strive to publish.

You have drawn attention to various stories that are critical of the state of our coast at present. We can also point to stories that have been positive and supportive – our call for everyone to vote for our mayor as the Best in KZN and the recent unqualified audit to name a few.

Our only ‘agenda’ is to encourage our elected politicians and administrators to serve all citizens fairly and maintain the Hibiscus Coast properly. The latter is vital as tourism is our lifeblood.

Holiday people will not flock to an area that is visibly deteriorating in many areas (we have published photographs to prove this). The repercussions are immense: Less jobs, more poverty, more crime.

Public/private partnerships

We concede that it is not always HCM’s fault and in last week’s Herald we encouraged ratepayers and business people alike to engage in public/private partnerships to tackle issues together. I am personally involved in several such initiatives.

With regards to the state of various areas and abuse of state vehicles, we did not publish merely out of spite. These stories were all as a result of concerned citizens approaching us to expose the problems in the hope that something would be done about them.

We also take great exception to you claiming that Shona Aylward posed as an HCM employee to get a story about lifeguards. With respect, Shona is a well known and highly respected journalist on the coast.

One finds it laughable that lifeguards would mistake someone with a camera around her neck and a notebook in her hand as an ‘HCM official’.  Anyway, the lifeguards she first spoke to who inspired the story know her well as she frequents that particular beach regularly to canoe.

Once again, we are not the ‘mouthpiece of any grouping interests’ other than the citizens of the Hibiscus Coast in general. Last week we highlighted the plight of Merlewood which is not a ‘leafy, privileged suburb’, but deserves to be.

Proud of Shona Aylward

This week we have highlighted the plight of our lifeguards (many of whom openly spoke to Shona) who feel badly done by. This is obviously not just an HCM problem so how you can drag politics into it boggles the mind. Lifeguards are crucial to the safety of locals and holiday people alike and of course the ‘Service Level Agreement’ you have with ‘Lifeguards Companies’ is in the public interest.

We accept that the municipality has a ‘functional system to deal with complaints from the public’, but the fact that many still prefer to run to the press is not our fault.

For the record: The Herald is proud to have a crusading journalist like Shona Aylwayd working for us and the South Coast is lucky to have someone so passionate about her job and her home environment.

We take the greatest exception to these personal attacks on her and our integrity.

Regards,

Bevis Fairbrother, branch manager, South Coast Herald