Grocott's Mail

Vandalism blocks service delivery

- By MAKANA COMMUNICAT­IONS TEAM

Makana Municipali­ty is facing a big challenge of vandalism and would like to appeal to residents to work with the municipali­ty in its attempts to address the problem.

Over the past few years Makana Municipali­ty assets have been targeted by vandals causing the municipali­ty to spend hundreds of thousands in fixing these assets.

The municipali­ty is facing serious financial challenges and avoidable issues such as vandalism and illegal dumping only add to the financial challenges of the institutio­n.

The municipali­ty would like the community of Makana to be part of finding a solution to this problem, because the people who are responsibl­e for these acts live in our communitie­s. According to Makana municipali­ty director of Infrastruc­ture Daluxolo Mlenzana, the recurrence of vandalism in Makana has had an adverse effect on the whole operations of service delivery, especially electricit­y and water supply, as damage to some of the assets has led to water outages or inability to monitor the supply.

He said the municipali­ty is losing water through vandal- ised infrastruc­ture and most of this vandalism is suspected to be taking place at night. Mlenzana said the areas that are mostly targeted include the water treatment works, where lots cable of theft normally occurs, as well as theft of copper material including fencing, reservoirs and pump station wiring.

“Bulk meters that were recently vandalised cost around R80 000. I am not sure of the value for the cables, but the cost of fixing the pumps at Belmont due to cable theft amounts to R35 000,” said Mlenzana. He said that municipali­ty is in process of implementi­ng measures to combat these acts of vandalism.

“The municipali­ty is changing the steel material where possible to use non recycled material like fibre glass and more security measures are being implemente­d as well,” Mlenzana added.

Some areas, especially Stones Hill and the surround- ing areas, have been affected by blackouts for days recently due to cable theft. This is unacceptab­le as these are essential services that the citizens should be getting but are interrupte­d by vandals.

He said that forums have been formed to educate people around Grahamstow­n about the effects caused by vandalism on service delivery.

Mlenzana urged the community to take ownership of the infrastruc­ture that is provided for the community, adding that it is their responsibi­lity to ensure that these assets are taken care of so that they can serve their purpose.

He also called upon the community to join forces with the institutio­n in fighting the issue of theft and vandalism by ensuring that they are the eyes and ears of the municipali­ty as the perpetrato­rs resides within the communitie­s.

“This damage to the municipal infrastruc­ture does not only affect the municipali­ty. The most affected are the citizens because services to the community are interrupte­d and that is unacceptab­le to everyone affected.

Another concern of the municipali­ty is the growing concern of illegal dumping.

The municipali­ty is commit- ted to ensuring that the town is clean, but this also needs the community to play its part in order for it to be successful. The municipali­ty would like to appeal to the residents of Makana to refrain from illegal dumping. The municipali­ty has marked legal dumping sites for garden refuse as identified by the different communitie­s.

The municipali­ty also col- lects household refuse on a weekly basis.

Residents are urged to make use of these services and discourage those who continue to dump illegally.

 ?? Photo: Anele Mjekula ?? This leak is one of many that are caused by vandalism which can cause the feeding resevoirs to have low water levels. The municipali­ty would like to appeal to community members to refrain from damaging things that will cause problems for the community...
Photo: Anele Mjekula This leak is one of many that are caused by vandalism which can cause the feeding resevoirs to have low water levels. The municipali­ty would like to appeal to community members to refrain from damaging things that will cause problems for the community...
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