Turn off that tap

Ward 11's Mncedisi Gojela says what occupies his attention most as a councillor is crime. Last weekend it was very serious: he was called on to intervene after an attack on two young women. Often, it's vandalism that he's called on to deal with. "If a school gets new equipment, it's ruined or stolen in no time," he says.

"If trucks working on a project are parked overnight, the diesel gets stolen." Vandalism frustrates service delivery, he points out. The attack on two of the town's reservoirs last year was very quick and very deliberate, officials say.

"They knew exactly what they were doing," one official said. "They went straight for the power supply to the electric fence, disabled it and cut the security wire - they actually went through two fences!"

A look at the reservoirs suggests it's metal they were after, rather than any use they could obtain from the fittings and specialised equipment they stole.

Surely someone must know where that now-scrap metal went.

The kind of theft and damage that's being done to electricity cables and our water supplies is such that someone could well pay the ultimate price. Loose cables hang on the ground, unsheathed in parts. And an animal or person falling into one of the town's reservoirs is unlikely to survive.

Like a leaking tap, vandalism and theft drain our town's resources.

In a speech to the Black Management Forum this week, National Planning Commission chairperson Jeff Radebe cited the 2014 development indicators.

Over 12 years, the share of households accessing basic services increased from 77% to 86% (electricity), from 80% to 86% (water infrastructure exceeding RDP standards) and 62% to 80% (households accessing sanitation), Radebe said.

A good number of those 14% and 20% left-outs must be here.

One of the big assets our country has is smart people with good ideas and it will be interesting to see how the Partnership for Urban Innovation, launched by Radebe (he clearly had a very busy week) pans out.

"As government, we do not have all the answers; our firms, universities, and private citizens are the greatest source of new good ideas," Radebe said in his speech. "This partnership is about harvesting those good ideas." One of the partnership's primary goals is to "Provide direct support and incentives to municipalities, communities and other key agents who are involved in innovative urban practice." If Grahamstown could tap into that. Look out for our 23 October edition, when Grocott's Mail will be carrying coverage of the Mini Budget.