WATCH: Ward 64 councillor addresses pressing faults
"At the end of the day it just boils down to corruption – a few people fill their pockets at the expense of the residents who suffer, going days without water."
AGEING infrastructure is at the core of most of the city’s woes, according to ward 64 councillor, Gavin Hegter. In a tour of the area recently with the SUN, he highlighted issues that are mostly affecting residents in the area.
Most notably, the area is riddled with burst underground pipes on roads and verges, the biggest one being on Fairbridge Road in Woodlands, where a family is unable to leave their premises as diggings engulfed their driveway.
“Bale Avenue is another one of our problem roads. The issues are generally all over, but some areas are worse than others. Towards the end of last year, the head of water and sanitation gave us a presentation and said he should be replacing a number of kilometres of pipes in the city every month. They acknowledge that but they just don’t have the funds for it. What makes it worse is that you will end up with a situation like in Faribridge Road where they don’t even have the materials in stores to do the repairs. They now must order specifically,” he said.
He added that while a leak might look small, as someone whose been in the plumbing business himself, a drip can fill a bath, but unfortunately the department does not have the manpower to fix everything.
“They are patching where they can and very often, the plumbers have to do what they call a ‘makeshift fix’ or as another superintended said to me, a ‘make a plan fix’ and they’re running out of plans to make. I recall a burst pipe a while back on Nagle Square.”
“The area superintended found an old fitting and bought the bolts out of his own pocket to assemble this old fitting just to get the job done. That is what we’re facing. It is across all departments in the city. At the end of the day it just boils down to corruption – a few people fill their pockets at the expense of the residents who suffer, going days without water.”
The councillor acknowledged issues with filing reports with the municipality but nonetheless advised that it is the responsibility of residents to report even though the call centres and WhatsApp platforms are generally not swift.
Contractors
“Some contractors last year were not getting paid, so they stopped working. Then a new budget came in and the department then turned around to them to say they cannot get paid for last year’s work under a new budget this year.”
“They expected the contractors to write that money off and the contractors disagreed. This is why very few contractors have come back. And they now have to find new contractors who have to go through the whole process which is just yet another hurdle and that is where we are sitting.”
“What happens usually is the departments will blame supply chain management for not having materials and supply chain management blames the departments for not ordering the materials. It is just a blame game and at the end of the day, it is pure blatant corruption. The money has been stolen and the residents of the city are the ones suffering.”
Electricity
“We’re facing a similar situation with electricity, as we have numerous street lights not working. The ageing infrastructure cannot take this switching on and off with loading-shedding, which results in a lot of power failures. I am currently busy dealing with one in Seaview and as we have this hot weather, the switchgear and joints on transformers are shot out and either pop or trip out the transformer.”
“As we head into Summer, we’re going to see more and more of that. In the past, that used to be serviced on a regular basis and unfortunately, that is not happening anymore. We have a total breakdown of the system. “The first step is to report an issue to the municipality. If it is not repaired in a suitable time frame, notify me, send me that reference number so I can then escalate it.”
“A councillor’s role is to be that link between the resident and officials when the resident isn’t getting the service delivery that they are entitled to. They escalate it to us and we take it up as far as we need to. We are fighting a battle throughout the city and it is a huge problem.”
“Sadly, the way things are going with this new administration in the city is that it is not making the necessary changes. Hopefully in the elections next year, the people will talk and they need to realise that they should not blame their ward councillor, but look at the bigger picture. We are in big trouble.”
To get a hold of the ward 64 councillor, Gavin Hegter, call or WhatsApp 072-821-1917.
To report faults call 080-131-3013 for Water or send a WhatsApp to 073-148-3477 or for electricity call 080-131-3111 or send a WhatsApp to 076-791-2449.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19. For any comments or queries, contact the National Group Editor, Irma Green at irma@caxton.co.za or the Legal Adviser, Helene Eloff at helene@caxton.co.za.
DID YOU KNOW?
Click on the words highlighted in red to read more on this and related topics. To receive news links via WhatsApp or Telegram, send an invite to 061 876 3179 The Southlands Sun is also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest – why not join us there?
Do you have more information pertaining to this story?
Feel free to let us know by commenting on our Facebook page or you can contact our newsroom on 031 903 2341 and speak to a journalist.
(Comments posted on this issue may be used for publication in the Sun)
