Dear Editor.-
I have lived on the South Coast for a year now and am almost speechless at the apparent apathy and acceptance of the largely poor level of service we receive from the local municipalities and government departments.
We are saddled with severe water problems from the service provider Ugu. We understand that they are bankrupt or close to that. They have a huge but unacceptable salary bill. Their lack of competence must be costing business on the South Coast enormously.
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We hear that residents are selling up and leaving; visitors are fed up and say they will no longer holiday here because water shortages are too frequent and sanitation and sewage litter some of our beaches. My many emails and messages on various matters remain unanswered. I have now managed to contact a manager who has undertaken to have my issues addressed.
The potholes have been left too long and many roads need a full remake to become usable. The ‘repair’ to the main road through Oslo Beach is so appallingly rough and unacceptable that the engineer who passed it should be demoted to road sweeper or better still, removed from that discipline completely. Why has there not been a huge outcry over this?
Some of our verges are not being cleared properly by the municipality’s contractors; mine for example is overgrown with invasive weeds. Supervision?
The garden refuse dump opposite the Louisiana township has four full skips but is apparently closed because the management of RNM can’t be bothered to provide and clear the necessary skips.
So the residents are told not to dump rubbish in the suburb of Umtentweni for example BUT they are not provided with a working dump. Management? A superintendent told me he was not a manager! When a person is promoted to superintendent, surely that person should be aware of the definition of a superintendent?
I used to attend a certain ratepayers’ monthly meeting. It was deafening in its undertakings and verbal gobblegook but action was blatantly absent. I wonder why it draws only a handful of residents.
I cannot speak for the other associations on the South Coast, but I suspect we all suffer similar shortcomings proffered by those who dominate discussion, perhaps because they enjoy their own voices.
We read in the papers and by word of mouth that a police officer has added to his house in an upmarket suburb and uses it to hold rowdy ‘church’ meetings which greatly disturb nearby residents. We are told that, notwithstanding his employment as a police officer, he has no planning permission for these alterations, nor has he permission to use a residence for this activity. Apparently it would require re-zoning. What are his seniors doing about it and when? Are the police allowed to engage in such business whilst being in the employ of the police or protection services?
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I would suggest a concerted effort by those councillors who recognise the severity of our plight to encourage, cajole and otherwise obtain the support of the community at large to address these outrages and demand they be put right. Only a mass action can achieve this – methinks.
NEIL KNOX-WHITEHEAD
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