Dear Members,
There is much to report at the moment, however, I apologise for the lack of positive news and success stories. As you all know, the key focus of our efforts this year has been on the competence of our senior management. While we have many fantastic people in the municipality and the responsiveness of many of our service teams has been outstanding, there is a dearth of competence and experience in the senior ranks of the Administration. This is primarily due to the excessive political interference by the current coalition on senior management appointments which have, in our opinion, been at the expense of competence and good governance, and resulted in substantial amounts of unauthorized and wasteful expenditure.
On Monday 19th August, a Motion of No Confidence in the Mayor, Speaker and Chief whip will be tabled in Council by the DA coalition. Once again we should expect another period of change and instability, however, we are hopeful that there will be renewed commitment to experience, competence and integrity.
Senior management appointments.
In July we reported that we were challenging the appointments of Luvuyo Loliwe as Director of Corporate Services and Tanya Wildeman as Director of Planning and Development, with MEC of Local Government Bredell who has oversight over municipal director appointments and has the power to confirm appointments or not. Legislation is specific about qualifications required for each post in different categories of municipality because they are critical to a municipality’s success. We do not believe either of these officials meet the qualifications required. We also have concerns about the competency of Acting Municipal Manager Links, as supported by a High Court judgment. We remain hopeful that none of these appointments will be approved and will keep you informed of MEC Bredell’s decisions.
We reported in an earlier communication that we objected to Council paying out R4.2m being the remainder of Mr. Memani’s five-year contract to vacate the MM position in order to replace him with a person of the ANC/PA/IPM/PDC coalition’s choosing. Given the size of the settlement offered, the decision cannot go unchallenged. Fortunately, the Democratic Alliance came to the same conclusion and have instituted proceedings to have the decision reviewed and set aside by the High Court, saving us the expense and effort to do so. We are keeping a close watch on developments.
Sewerage department.
The Ratepayers, along with Bitou’s water manager, have been forewarning Bitou Municipality for years that its wastewater treatment plant, near Old Nick’s Village, is approaching full capacity and requires an extension. The maturation ponds also critically require that the sludge that has accumulated in them be removed, yet for years no funds have been budgeted for this critical work. A consultant has now been appointed to prepare a preliminary design report for the upgrading and extension to the plant so we are hopeful that the necessary funds will be made available. We are monitoring this closely.
Waste Removal department.
The Waste department has been subjected to years of poor budgeting, inefficiencies and bad management. Millions of rands have been spent on removing the resulting stockpiles of waste, which accumulated due to a lack of working trucks and suitable containers to haul it to the landfill site in Mossel Bay.
Garbage destined for the landfill in Mossel Bay is taken to the transfer station at Kwano where it is hydraulically compacted into special containers to reduce the volume to maximise the efficiency of moving the waste. The containers are loaded onto special road trucks and trailers, three at a time, and hauled by truck to the land fill. The trucks were not timeously replaced which led to breakdowns and an accumulation of large stockpiles of waste within the system, particularly during the festive season peak, which took many months to clear. They then had to be moved by private contractors at great additional cost.
Recently, some of the specialized compactor containers which carry the loads have become unsafe and have had to be removed from service which means that the trucks now cannot be run at full load, but no allowance was made in the budget to replace them. The result is that the garbage once again accumulates to the point where private contractors must be paid to inefficiently transport uncompacted garbage to the landfill. A new truck has recently been purchased and two new containers are currently on order which should go some way to alleviate the situation.
However, the biggest problem facing the department is the accumulation of a very large stockpile of bulky waste at the Transfer Station which cannot be transported to landfill in the compacting containers. Poor gate management at the transfer station has resulted in the stockpile containing large quantities of garbage, as well as building rubble and recyclable materials, and the lack of open containers to transport the waste have all contributed to the creation of the stockpile. Its presence is contrary to the licensing conditions of the Transfer Station and its removal should be a major priority for the department.
However, for the last two years provision for the purchase of open containers suitable for the transport of the waste has been removed from the budget and it appears that the intention is now to engage private contractors to remove the waste which will cost many millions of Rand. We have asked the Municipality what their long-term plan is to remove the stockpile but have not received a response.
Another imminent problem is that the PetroSA landfill has exceeded its design life and is ready to close, but the new landfill site which has cost the municipalities millions to establish is five months behind schedule and may not be ready to accept waste in time. We are waiting anxiously to know what contingency plans are in place to stockpile and ultimately dispose of the waste that will inevitably accumulate.
Airport closure
After more than a decade of indecision concerning the development of the airport, a contract was signed with rsaAero in February this year. This was extremely good news for both Plett and the Garden Route as significant potential exists to expand our tourism with direct flights into Plett. However, since then, Bitou have been incapable of concluding the contract and handing over the airport business to rsaAero. During this time Bitou repeatedly failed to respond to the SACAA’s findings regarding the deterioration of the runway, to the point that it had become a safety risk for commercial aircraft. At the end of July, the SACAA suspended the operating license which effectively put a stop to all commercial and general aviation aircraft. Despite the best endeavors of rsaAero who have made substantial compromises, we are no closer to Bitou finalizing the contract and no closer to reopening the airport for local pilots. This is having a significant impact on aviation businesses like Skydive Plett as well curtailing business commuting.
Kind regards,
Steve Pattinson
