Municipal website offline for a week
The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s website has been offline for at least a week with complications stemming from supply chain management and contractual issues.
This means the tender portal, valuation roll, councillor database, dam levels, municipal bylaws, emergency numbers and public documents, including those detailing council decisions and service delivery initiatives, remain out of reach for ratepayers.
The city’s communication department oversees the website’s management, facilitated by Mars Technologies.
Municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said: “The website is down due to supply chain management and contractual issues [that] the metro is resolving internally and with the service provider to have the website operational without any disruptions and further hindrances.”
He apologised for any inconvenience caused.
Soyaya did not say whether the issue stemmed from a payment problem, but it is understood this was the cause.
Mars Technologies application services manager Renier Swart said it was better that the municipality answered questions.
“Please note that by law we are bound by client confidentiality, which can be wavered by expressly written consent from said customer,” he said.
“I would urge you to reach out to a customer representative from the municipality for further comment.”
Ward 19 councillor Gamalihleli Maqula said the website going down showed incompetence by officials.
“How can a website of an institution this big not be accessible for more than a week without communication about this to the public?
“Residents rely on the website to get updates on maintenance issues because they [municipality] are the ones who post when refuse will not be picked up or there will be water supply issues.”
Ward 2 councillor Renaldo Gouws said the situation indicated a failing administration.
“The municipality is busy with the integrated development plan (IDP) meetings and budget discussions.
“Residents access these documents from the website, which means if people don’t get these documents they can’t make meaningful contributions at meetings because they will rely on what they are told.
“When the website is not working, this means people can’t prepare themselves by filling containers in the case of a water outage.
“The worst part is people putting out rubbish bags in the morning only to find them ripped open by dogs, which make our communities dirty if refuse has been called off.”
Resident Thabiso Mdoda said the website issue was an inconvenience, especially for businesses which relied on it for information on tenders.
“I visited the municipal offices last week to inquire about tender documents that I required which I usually get from the website,” Madoda said.
“Having to go all the way to the city from Motherwell costs money — for documents I previously accessed through the website.”