DEAR Editor,-
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Selvan Chetty for the article recently where he points out the lack of service delivery in Wards 12, 16 and 18, and where residents of Albersville feel they have been sidelined by HCM. Make no error, they have not been sidelined but subjected to a complete failure of service delivery with the rest of the municipality.
My colleagues and I have fought relentlessly for a lot longer than five months, and have all the documentation, minutes of portfolios, IDP listings, proof of phone calls etc and have been fobbed off with one excuse after another, which includes lack of compactors, lack of staff, staff not wanting to work, tenders being delayed, not enough skips, no houses available, and the list goes on. However, the ratepayers are not interested in excuses, nor should they be. They pay for service delivery month after month to no avail, and this year has been the worst that I am aware of for twenty years.
In my ward, we have the ongoing mess at the taxi rank, parking issues throughout the town, hawkers out of control, all of which have been discussed very thoroughly, and solutions put forward, none of which have been implemented to date.
Jan Smuts Avenue at the back of SAPS has become a worse rubbish dump than ever before, yet it is only about 100 metres away from the refuse collection base!
I have residents living in appalling slums, some of whom have been on the housing list since the early nineties, and nothing has changed.
The residents of the caravan park were told they would be rehoused earlier in the year, yet nothing has happened and they have been surviving somehow without a water supply for the past six months. As they have not been rehoused, the proposed development of the old Sharks’ Den site has not been started, so we are left yet again with a shocking eyesore instead of an asset.
The beachfront gabions have now collapsed so a great deal more money will now be needed to carry out what was originally a relatively minor repair of the road. The ablutions along the beachfront are still not available to the public, though I was led to believe that the former HCDA had that in hand. Similarly, the area around the paddling pool near Stages Restaurant was destroyed, and not rebuilt, so another eyesore exists during season, with the bricks lying there being put onto the road to damage cars driving along there at night.
Further along, beneath Athlone Drive, there is no control at all of the illegal drinking and partying happening over weekends, and particularly over season. Residents are subjected to appalling noise disturbances throughout the nights, and hundreds of glass bottles are left around each morning. Yet, it continues unabated despite so many laws and by-laws being broken. Rubbish that is packaged daily is not removed daily, verges that have finally been cut have been left with mounds of grass not picked up, and wherever one drives in that area to or from the beachfront, bags of rubbish lie around for a week or more.
Prostitution is rife, and brothels exist, yet they continue to plague us with impunity despite continuous requests for action. One cannot drive anywhere without encountering them, and the sooner their ‘punters’ are exposed, the sooner we will be rid of this scourge. The number of schoolgirls in uniform seen attending brothels during school hours begs belief.
The entrance to Port Shepstone is extremely shabby, and continues along the main road for all visitors to see. What a shame we could not support the wonderful Oribi Plaza upgrade where an enormous amount of money has obviously been spent. What an insult to the businesses that are invested there. What a welcome to the South Coast for our tourists.
Street children continue to roam our streets sniffing glue and causing crime, but Social Welfare claims it cannot do anything about them. Yet it is its mandate to find a solution. That is what Social Welfare is all about.
I realise that where my ward is concerned, we do not have tourists to any degree, nor will we when there is nothing to encourage them. The thousands who descend on us every holiday season do not bring income to us as most come in from the Eastern Cape or from inland. They bring their own alcohol, food, noise pollution and disregard for the area, leaving it filthy and abused. Many are children without adult supervision. This will continue until the authorities recognise that it needs to be controlled, and thoroughly policed as it was two years ago. Then it was a pleasure for all to enjoy.
Selvan, I find it ironic that the ANC Forum has to take up issues against a municipality that is ANC-led. I wish you luck in your endeavours, but have to say that if you succeed where we have failed, then we will have to seriously question the motives to date of a council that is legally mandated to provide service delivery regardless of political affiliation. However,I have asked myself many times the reasons why we should have deteriorated to such a degree so swiftly, and I can only reach two potential conclusions; a) political interference, (which I doubt, as all wards are affected); or b) incompetence, in which case full investigations must be carried out, and offenders held to account.
CAROLE POTTER
DA Councillor, Ward 18.
