DA Ugu Caucus provides feedback on council meetings

Dear Editor

Feedback from the Democratic Alliance Ugu Caucus to the Ugu community on the latest Ugu council meetings held in April.

1. Application from Ugu to Eskom for the exemption of its installations from load-shedding:
Eskom granted Ugu exemption for the St Helen’s Rock Pump station with immediate effect. This means that even during load-shedding Ugu will be able to continue pumping water into the Bhobhoyi storage dam and it will prevent a system collapse as often experienced during continuous load-shedding. Eskom is busy with a costing exercise to reconfigure their networks to include all other major Ugu pump stations and water treatment works. It will cost the municipality R102 million to procure generators to run the plants and pump stations mentioned, which is unaffordable at the moment. This excludes the huge running costs of generators. This is an ongoing project and the community shall be kept informed.

2. Appointment of the Ugu Municipal Manager:
The appointment should be concluded by the end of May. A shortlist of candidates has been established and the candidates will now be assessed and interviewed.

3. Water Tankers:
The DA’s motivated request for a daily water tanker schedule was agreed to. The municipality received nine new water tankers from Cogta and is hiring 16 private tankers to add to their fleet of 15 currently on the road. They are awaiting the delivery of an additional 20 from the Department of Water Services.

4. The DA’s motivation for daily Executive Committee meetings to improve performance was not acceded to. It is our conviction that a responsible government will always be ‘hands-on’ during a crisis.

5. The DA’s motivation to make Ugu’s water distribution layouts available to the public in order to improve their general understanding of outages, was not agreed to for security reasons. However, there was an agreement to hold training sessions with ward councillors to equip them with sufficient knowledge to keep residents informed.

6. Revenue Roadshows reminder:
The Treasury Department will be at a hall near you for all your account and billing queries. If you are behind in your payments make use of this opportunity to apply for amnesty and get a discount of up to 50% on your arrears. T&C’s apply. You can find the schedule on the Ugu District Municipality Facebook Page.

In general, Ugu’s financial position remains dire and there is no improvement yet on the operational side to produce enough water to supply every household. The KZN Premier has also been missing in action as he was supposed to present his Ugu turnaround plan to the community in the first week of March. It’s now two months later, still nothing.

Whilst this humanitarian crisis is continuing unabated, where residents are battered and bruised having to go without water for days, and in many areas for weeks and months, without any or very little relief supply, please remember that the blame for this lies squarely in front of the door of the ANC mayor and her governing party. They, and their predecessors, are responsible for destroying a once-proud institution that delivered five-star service to its communities. The only lasting solution for the Ugu citizens is to have a DA majority government, as is evident in areas where the citizens have voted the DA into office.

The DA Ugu Caucus will keep you informed on the progress in all these important matters and will continue to fight for the rights of all the residents of Ugu, without fear or favour.

Councillor George Henderson
DA Ugu Caucus Leader