OPINION: Good Business – Basics Private sector to the rescue
A number of courts in the country have already ruled that municipalities must reimburse private sector players who have provided or restored services they were unable or unwilling to.
The front page report on the efforts of the private sector to repair and restore the flood damaged section of the R620 in Margate provoked a lot of emotion in me.
I wrote recently about citizens abandoning state provided service providers such as Eskom and UGU due to their gross inefficiency and non-delivery and this action by concerned stakeholders is alluding to the fact that frustrated citizens are willing to get stuck in and their hands dirty in other spheres of government services too.
No doubt the team involved here were not willing to relive the drama imposed on them by the provincial government’s inordinate delay in repairing the damage to the entrance intersection to the Margate CBD a few years ago.
The prospect of private sector players taking over the operation and maintenance of other services is an imminent reality.
Indeed, a number of courts in the country have already ruled that municipalities must reimburse private sector players who have provided or restored services they were unable or unwilling to.
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In a number of other municipalities, the private sector is actively looking to courts for permission to assume management of key functions, such as inMafube Local Municipality in the Free State.
In their application, the Mafube Business Forum made ….’the impassioned plea, saying that the municipality had, as far back as 16 years ago, failed to perform its basic tasks, such as refuse collection, fixing potholes, providing clean water, and performing administrative and legislative functions.’ So the prospect of diminishing revenue I spoke about in respect of the likes of Eskom, is fast becoming a reality for municipalities too.
The other notable thing about this road project as well is the fact that they didn’t need anything like President Ramaphosa’s failed ‘Social Compact’ (the one that was supposed to be in place a 100 days after the SONA in February).
They just got on with the job of doing what was the best for their town.
It would have been an instructive and interesting case study though, in how long the provincial roads department would have taken to execute this repair, and at what cost, compared to the three week completion period achieved by these ‘active citizens’.
Spare a kind thought for the disgruntled consultants and connected contractors who will have to go without the fat year end stocking fillers they would have derived from this contract… just kidding!
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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