From the mayor’s desk
This is the sixth in a series of letters from Mayor Leon van Wyk to the residents of the George municipal area, published every second week.
Every year towards the end of February, the municipality goes through an adjustment budget process to review its budget needs for the current financial year’s budget. In the present financial year, we are dealing with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the municipality’s finances. Over the past year we have seen the debtors’ book increase by R80m - from R240m in January 2020 to R320m this year. Over and above billed revenue we have also experienced a reduction in revenue on a year-to-year basis.
The increase in debtors has necessitated an increase in provisions for debtors that may not be collected. The budget has had to be balanced through the introduction of savings on a whole range of expenditure items.
While the above-mentioned exercise has been underway, the municipal manager has implemented a tightening of the complaints management modules to ensure that all complaints that are logged are attended to and resolved speedily. The value of this system is that if complaints are logged via the George Municipal App, a reference number is immediately allocated and can then be tracked to ensure follow-up and resolution. The municipal website: www.george.gov. za contains details under the Notices section of how the App can be downloaded and how faults can be logged.
This is where our citizens play a crucial role in becoming “Active Citizens” who thereby bring faults within the vast network to the immediate attention of the municipality. It is useful to note the extent of the networks operated by the municipality to maintain a perspective of faults being dealt with: a water pipeline network of 990 kilometres, sewerage reticulation lines totalling 870 kilometres and 550 kilometres of roads, by way of example.
Occasionally I note that on social media platforms, citizens will make comments or place photographs of an overflowing sewer manhole or other faults without indicating its location or whether they have reported the incident. We need “Active Citizens” who take pride in their municipality who will immediately report and log faults and incidents to the municipality so that these matters can be attended to. This is one positive contribution that our citizens can make by ensuring that faults are logged. The above improvements will contribute to the quicker resolution of faults.
For many months we have become aware that the appearance of George may not be as neat and clean as we would like it to be. As part of the savings that have been made on the Adjustment Budget, funding is being allocated to launch a project to improve the cleanliness of George. The planning for this project is underway with the roll-out
expected in the next few weeks.