DEAR Editor,-
Being banned from membership of Ugu District Council’s mainstream finance, and water and sanitation portfolio committees, has a tiny upside for the Democratic Alliance. All sorts of interesting facts and figures are quoted in the agendas of the special programmes portfolio committees even if they have precious little to do with Ugu’s core business of supplying water and sanitation on a sustainable basis.
The agenda for the November meeting of special programmes reveals that Ugu has 452 ‘Youth Ambassadors’ whose job it is to conduct behavioural change campaigns amongst the youth in the district. Youth ambassadors are appointed by province and the chain of command and reporting relationships are uncertain. Only 166 are active and the balance of 286 do not attend what are called war rooms, and some of them cannot be traced, despite the fact that they are paid a stipend for their efforts.
There are 84 wards in the municipality that make up Ugu. The intention is that each ward should have a war room. According to information provided by the district municipality 10 wards have fully functioning war rooms. They meet on a regular basis, we are told, to provide an additional conduit for information to the municipalities as well as facilitating access to government departments like social welfare and home affairs. In some cases ward councillors who in any event preside over their own ward committee meetings also attend war rooms.
Further on in the document there is a general heading called ‘Field Workers’. Subdivisions here include CDWs or community development officers, CCGs and sports volunteers in addition to the youth ambassadors. In some quarters it has been suspected for some time that some of these jobs may have been created as paid positions for ANC activists. Community development officers for example were like unicorns when I was a ward councillor, but the summary of field workers distribution document calls for them to be appointed in every ward. This suspicion is strengthened by the requirement that a youth ambassador needs to be appointed for every VS (voting station) in every ward.
If these allegations are correct appointments like the ones mooted might well affect the outcome of next year’s national and provincial elections.
D SNASHALL
