During the council meeting, members from different political parties gathered to tackle the ongoing among other service delivery matters.

The ever-increasing crime in the city constantly experienced by its community members was highlighted by Executive Mayor Councillor Conny Nkalitshana on Thursday, March 30.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) raised a point about the security of infrastructure in the city and what role the community services law enforcement plays in assuring that the municipal infrastructure is protected.

The opposition further inquired about the assistance provided to law enforcement in making sure that it was better equipped to protect Emalahleni’s infrastructure against vandalism and theft under the watch of law enforcement.

The mayor responded to say that indeed it is the responsibility of community services to safeguard the municipalities’ assets, but due to the limitation of staff at the municipality, it, therefore, hinders the progress of safeguarding the infrastructure.

She further outlined that individuals sitting at Section 80 in terms of community services are responsible for advising the council where there are gaps and Section 79 for community services are supposed to be monitoring the work that has been done by the department whilst advising and council where there are gaps and how they are supposed to be filled.

The mayor went on to tackle the hot topic of vandalism of infrastructure.

She said Emalahleni is under attack and what was experienced by the 40MV transformer and cables is also happening with the water pipes, pumps as well as water treatment plants.

In this case, the mayor explained that several water pipes have been dug from the ground as currently the majority of the sewer plant cables have constantly been stolen.

On Friday, March 24 the mayor and MMC Busi Hlumbane visited water treatment plants.

The executive mayor inspected Klipspruit and Naauwpoort Water Treatment Plants due to reports of vandalism and theft from the technical team.

They also evaluated the progress on the extension project of the Klipspruit Water Treatment Plant which is under a contractor.

The mayor confirmed at the meeting that Carewell is doing the best to its ability to guard Emalahleni’s infrastructure but the scope is limited to a certain number of water bodies.

“Just to give an overview, at the water pump stations, there is only one guard during the day that is responsible for approximately 10 hectares per sewer plant. It is therefore impossible for one guard to realistically execute his/her duties,” the mayor outlined.

Nkalitshana concluded that the possible solution would be that the municipality invests in technological equipment that would be able to detect movement within the plants.

She said that every decision taken by the leaders of the city should ensure that something tangible is handed over to the next administrator and not a ‘skeleton’ municipality and that can only be achieved if the administrator performs due diligence by assessing the risks and possible mitigations.

On Saturday, April 1 the mayor also issued a statement urging community members to refrain from tampering with municipal infrastructure and report any suspicious activities to the municipality and law enforcement authorities.

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