Ugu plays ‘blame game’

ONE annoyed South Coaster is taking water matters into his own hands.

Hennie Mare, one of the founding members of the Margate Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association, is billing Ugu District Municipality after he had to repair a burst water pipe himself.

A plumber and electrician by trade, Mr Mare said a grader working in Winston Avenue in Margate accidently damaged the pipe, which was  close to the road’s surface.

He reported it (ref: C170124-38) to Ugu last Tuesday at 8.30am. “When I phoned Ugu a woman by the name of Ntokozo, said she would look into it and get back to me. But I am still waiting for that call,” he said.

When the Herald visited the site last Thursday Mr Mare still hadn’t heard from Ugu. “How long was Ugu expecting us to sit without water? In desperation I had to fix the pipe myself.”

A team from Ugu finally arrived on Saturday, and Mr Mare said he had to show the workers what to do.

“We are prepared to work with Ugu , but they must be prepared to work with us. If you say you are going to call a customer back, you call them back. Just don’t leave them waiting for days on end.”

In December, Mr Mare and his family spent six days without water (and no water tanker) after several hundred workers went on strike over ‘death and disability’ payments. To add insult to injury, he had to reimburse his tenants as he felt that he could not expect them to pay when they were denied water.

“I would like to know where Ugu’s municipal manager, DD Naidoo, was during the festive season and where Ugu’s disaster plan is. It all boils down to bad service – and all Ugu District does is offer bad service. What is the use of the municipality if it can’t supply the coast with a day-to-day service? Bottom line: a good manager has a good working team – and this is NOT the case with Ugu.”

Mr Mare also helped the Lower South Coast SPCA by supplying them with water during this time. “How can a municipality leave the animals without water. Isn’t their mandate is to supply water at all times?”

Ugu has played the blame game by finding excuses for poor service delivery, says Mr Mare. “In 23 years they haven’t worked on a plan to slowly replace the old asbestos pipes, very little maintenance is carried out on the existing pipes and no skills development or training is implemented.”

He has also challenged the allegations of a sophisticated water pump system being connected to one of Ugu’s main pipelines to the Seaslopes reservoir and using this to feed water to a house and a farm free of charge.

Charges were laid against the perpetrator by Ugu.

Mr Mare said there is no way a pump of that nature could drain a reservoir. “I saw the photograph of the pump. It is an entry level pump used to empty out the water when they do maintenance on a valve. I dispute that anyone was ‘stealing’ water and that this was merely a decoy by Ugu. If Mr Naidoo has a problem with this statement I encourage him to contact me so we can discuss it.”

A Margate Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association meeting will be held at the MBA offices in Margate on February 17 at 5.30pm. Everyone is invited to be part of electing a committee.

Mr Mare said they were looking for people to stand up and start fighting before it gets any worse. He stressed that the association is non-political and called for the public to stand up against poor service delivery. Anyone interested can contact him at 071 0717324.

Mr Mare said he refused to keep quiet about what is going on at Ugu District, adding that the association is determined to make a change on the South Coast.

Ugu District response: Public cannot be reimbursed for work.

IN response to Hennie Mare’s claims, Ugu District Municipality’s spokesman, France Zama, said:

On the point of Mr Mare billing Ugu for the repair job, no memorandum of understanding or standard procedure to reimburse members of the public, who claimed to have done work for the municipality, would be issued without an order number.
When the Ugu team initially attended to Mr Mare’s complaint they found out that the water had been closed off and they could not identify the reported burst pipe.

A few days later they received a call from a member of the public claiming that they had reported the leak and also took it upon themselves to close it to save water. Again, Ugu strongly discourages members of the public who take it upon themselves to work on the infrastructure.

Mr Zama added that the caller then informed them that he would avail himself to show the Ugu team what the real issue was and what he had done.
With regards to Mr Mare being without water for six days, Mr Zama said that relief supply was made available to all citizens, however, municipal by-laws clearly state that all business establishments which accommodate people for commercial reasons should maintain adequate storage for at least 48 hours, which is then replenished by the municipality in a case of prolonged water supply interruption.

We apologise for the inconvenience suffered, and also need to establish if the complainant is indeed complying with this.

Mr Zama said that Ugu has a detailed plan on pipeline replacement, as well as the provisional basic infrastructure to the majority of the Ugu community which were previously excluded from such services.
“This has been ongoing for the past 23 years, Mr Mare must familiarise himself with Ugu IDP and will realise the extent of work done. Issues of skills development are also covered there.”
He said that within the last five years, Ugu has managed to support and develop all its water services managers into qualified engineers, a rare skill in local government. Mr Zama said that details were available for Mr Mare if he wished to read more.