Expedite payments to SPCA for pound
The fact that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality only has one animal pound in Uitenhage has been a source of considerable concern for me in the past two years.
During my tenure as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor I instructed the relevant departmental officials to identify an additional site in the Port Elizabeth area.
An additional site would better serve the city’s needs regarding neglected and abused animals, controlling stray animals and generally monitoring the wellbeing of animals.
The SPCA was until recently responsible for providing this service. However, its contract was allowed to expire in 2015 or early 2016.
The newly elected coalition government in 2016 made interim financial provision through deviations to fund this crucial service.
There have been many horrific stories where frustrated land owners have taken the law into their own hands and, among other things, shot stray cattle.
Many people have been seriously injured in vehicle and motorcycle collisions with stray animals, and many animals are simply left to their own devices and they end up starving or dying from neglect.
The current situation where the SPCA has not been paid for months to provide this critical service has compounded these challenges significantly.
I listened with keen interest last month when Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani promised SPCA representative Deidre Swift on AlgoaFM that the funding and contractual impasse would definitely be resolved by the end of October.
Having been a farmer most of my life and being an animal lover, I know that domestic animals and livestock that live in an urban environment cannot take care of themselves.
I am also acutely aware that animals that are kept in confinement such as at the SPCA or the pound need to be watered and fed daily.
This cannot be done without the necessary funding.
This is why a well-known public personality and I approached a number of corporate and private businesses recently to assist the SPCA with interim funding.
We are most obliged to those companies that contributed almost R150,000.
I hereby challenge Bobani to urgently fulfil his public responsibility and undertakings by fixing the funding crisis with the SPCA.
It is providing a critically important, if not essential, service to our city.
The mayor said he “loves animals too much and that his daughter has a dog and his son a cat”.
How would he and his children feel if their pets were left to fend for themselves without care or food?
We have a responsibility as a society to take appropriate care, and show the necessary respect and responsibility to the animals that occupy this city with us. We are indebted to all the animal care and welfare organisations that help us do this.
Let’s show the animals that we care through deeds not words so that we can become “a great nation”.
Athol Trollip, DA federal chairperson and NMB councillor