Mountain town is safe and clean
● The traffic may be a little heavy, but the traffic lights work. There are rubbish bins aplenty, and the only litter to be seen while driving through town is at the taxi rank.
Welcome to Bergville, seat of the Okhahlamba local municipality, where residents say they have a constant supply of electricity, their roads are pothole-free, and the air smells fresh with not a whiff of sewage.
In his 2018/2019 local government audit report, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu praised the “culture of clean administration” at the municipality in the Drakensberg, which got its fourth consecutive clean audit — the only one in the province this year.
Residents agree. Sandford Park Country Hotel operations manager Dumisani Ndlovu gave the town government a glowing review, saying the council kept them abreast of developments in the tourism sector, and held workshops and seminars for entrepreneurs.
“We do not use municipal utilities. We do, however, pay rates and whenever we have queries they are attended to efficiently.”
Ebrahim Asmal, owner of Itumeleng Guest House in Bergville as well as a petrol station in town, said the municipality had established a mentoring programme for young tourism entrepreneurs.
“Crime is low because they installed cameras all over town. It’s a clean area and although it is rural, it is well kept,” he said.
Ordinary citizens are happy too, like Winterton resident Sibongile Hlongwane.
“It is safe and municipal services run smoothly, rubbish is collected, septic tanks are emptied, the streets are tarred with no potholes,” she said.
Bergville informal trader Hlengwa Zwane said he gets to a clean stand each morning but he wishes the municipality could build shelters for them.
It is hard to believe that nine years ago the municipality was under administration.
“We recruited a skilled workforce with the required qualifications because when we took over here in 2011 we found people in key finance positions with just matric and no formal qualifications,” said mayor Mlungisi Ndlangisa.
“We have installed electricity through the rural areas. We are busy with farm dwellers now but it takes time because we have to negotiate with the farmers, but we are also busy with three housing projects.”
However, there is room for improvement. “We carefully study the AG report every financial year to help us understand what the challenges are, what steps to take to address those,” he said.