Why must we jump up and down to get basic service delivery?

Where are Ray Nkonyeni Municipality‘s managers, the ones responsible for the upkeep of their wards?
Do they drive around and take note of the problems around the wards?

More and more, the municipality is relying on residents and ward councilors to report on service delivery issues – whereby it should be the other way around – the municipality should be proactive by fixing the issues before they get reported.

These are the question, among others, that Exco Ward Councillor Leon Garbade is asking.
Overgrown verges, potholes, blocked stormwater drains, poor workmanship, not up to standard work or jobs that aren’t finished – these are some of the seemingly endless problems in and around coastal suburbs that are becoming a major problem.
The long and growing list of service delivery issues is not only frustrating for ratepayers and residents, but also for ward councillors who are having to deal with the flood of never-ending issues.

Garbade took a South Coast Herald journalist (Shona Aylward) on a trip around Umtentweni and Albersville, to show the long list of escalating problems.

“The questions that are being asked are, for example, where is the accountability on jobs which are done like the potholes fixed in Norwood Road in Umtentweni but which have now resurfaced a few months later. This happens all the time,” said Garbade.

“Did someone get paid for fixing these potholes, and if so, where is the accountability?” he questioned.
The new drainage system installed in Marine Drive in Umtentweni has been left with several problems, even the road hasn’t been retarred.

In Albersville, homes in places like Flamingo Avenue, Snipe Road and Daffodil Road are situated in flood-prone areas, thus making it vital that their storm-water drains are cleaned out regularly.

Another issue is that storm-water drains or drainage areas are choked with napier grass.
A drive along Seagull Road revealed that there is not one storm-water drain in the entire road.
When it rains the water flows down the road and into the home at the end of the road. On more than one occasion, the home owner has lost his wall from the river of water.

“The solution would be to keep the storm-water drains clear of debris and napier grass, so they could function properly when there is heavy rainfall. It’s also pointless to fix potholes without clearing the stormwater drains as potholes are formed by water on the surface,” he said.
During the morning outing, not a single municipal worker was spotted driving around or overseeing maintenance or verge cutting.
Garbade raised the question: “Are the depot teams and managers non-existent?”

He raised further questions: “Where are these people who are getting paid salaries by ratepayers?”
“If they followed a schedule/roster it would be easy to keep on top of service delivery needed in and around suburbs,” he added.

RESPONSE
RNM understands, but says councillor should follow correct channels
Let one, first and foremost, acknowledge and appreciate that there is some unsatisfactory work done sometimes by certain contractors and some internal teams.

The municipality, in both the political leadership and administration, understands the frustrations experienced by ratepayers and the community at large regarding this, and sincerely apologises.

To mitigate causes of these frustrations, the political leadership has since directed senior management to produce a clear strategy to enhance monitoring and evaluation of work, either done by municipal teams or by contractors.

This mandate will be in the core of the deliberations in the upcoming management strategic planning session, which will be focusing on improving service delivery and ensuring value for money.

In not making an excuse, one should also indicate that there are other factors that are contributing to this unfortunate situation.
One of those is unfamiliar weather conditions, because of climate change.

For example, a repaired pothole may resurface sooner and the cut grass or verges grow faster due to frequent heavy rain.
Having said that, one should emphasise that the municipality still has a responsibility to mitigate these factors.

On behalf of the municipality, one needs to further say that it is unfortunate that the said councillor decided to go to the media, when he has several platforms where he can directly raise these issues.

To clarify the unfortunate part, the councillor is aware that service delivery departments develop maintenance plans for the whole municipality.
However, where there are urgent service delivery matters that need to be attended to outside those plans, the municipality depends on ward councillors, ward committees, ratepayers and individual community members to register or submit those matters.
It should be emphasised that managers do not have wards but work all over the municipality or according to either south or north areas, but it is councillors who have wards, as they are referred to as ward councillors or public representatives.

This, therefore, means that they have a responsibility, not only to report issues of service delivery to relevant departments or managers, but to also ensure that matters are attended to. Councillors can also raise issues related to service delivery in council meetings.
The said councillor is one of the few fortunate ward councillors as he is the EXCO councillor, and he has an additional direct platform where he can raise issues.

This additional platform is the service delivery and budget implementation plan (SDBIP) evaluation session.
This session, unlike council meetings, is also attended by managers, and therefore his concerns can be effectively raised there.
Nevertheless, all councillors are free or have access to relevant people within the municipality to raise issues related to service delivery, as they have access to portfolio chairpersons, the municipal manager, heads of departments and even managers.

The easiest and progressive thing that could have been done by the honorable councillor was to contact one of the above-mentioned people within the municipality.

To extend access to ratepayers (mainly to managers), the municipality convenes meetings with ratepayers wherein managers from service delivery departments attend.
In these meetings, ward councillors also attend.
With the above, which is additional to the customer complaints system, the municipality is trying to ensure that it is made aware of service delivery issues that needs its attention, outside scheduled or planned maintenance or provision of services.

SIMON M. APRIL
Senior Manager: Mayoralty and Communications
Ray Nkonyeni Municipality

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