No ‘world-class service’ in Bay

I STATE up front that I am a supporter of the DA and have voted for their prior incarnations for 51 years, and that I do appreciate what the mayor and the coalition have done this past year after the disastrous years of the ANC.

But. Mr Trollip, you state in your video (well-staged with loving wife and cat) that this metro enjoys “world-class service”. Nonsense! Perhaps in the leafy suburb of Walmer the municipal services are good but, hey, you live there.

Here in Richmond Hill, lumbered as we are with a useless SRA for which we pay, the municipal services are NOT world-class – in fact, they are almost non-existent. Take a walk, Mr Mayor, and see for yourself.

As to the vaunted customer care section of the municipality: An e-mail pointing out the municipality’s mistake on my monthly account elicited a response two weeks later telling me that my query was being attended to and I would be notified in 10 days. It is now 18 days later, and still no response. World-class?

As for the rates issue, suffice to ask how a two-bedroom, one-bathroom house can have a rateable value of R200 050 more than a double-storey with four bedrooms and two bathrooms? Both in the same street facing each other?

One comment came through clearly, in essence, “the sons of suburbia are now paying for the sins of the fathers”. Not a quote, but he did say that the haves must pay for the have-nots.

As for comparing our small industrial city with Cape Town, oh goodness, why bother?

Damian Chesterton, Port Elizabeth