Funding blamed for services issues

Parra points to performance of municipal staff

Ndlambe Municipality released its annual report for the 2020/21 period last week, sharing its achievements and challenges.

With regards to service delivery, the municipality said the results were mixed.

“Performance of water services and the provision thereof has seen improvements on many fronts when one considers the IDP objectives and goals,” it said.

“Potable, treated water is piped to all formal urban communities. Some of the Bathurst areas such as farms still rely on rainwater and private boreholes.

“Tankers transport water to strategically placed tanks [for informal settlements].”

While the municipality was positive with the progress it had made last year in supplying water to residents, a number of challenges were identified.

For one, the municipality noted there was an insufficient supply to keep up with growing demand as the number of residents continued to grow.

There was also the problem of ageing infrastructure which made leaks and breakdowns more likely. Similar concerns were noted regarding the provision of electricity,

In particular, the continued rise in the cost of electricity was “worrying”.

“The electrical supply to Port Alfred is of a high standard. The electrical supply to Alexandria, inclusive of Wentzel Park, needs upgrading,” the report said.

“Due to a lack of funds we have not been able to upgrade these cables, which are now practically redundant.”

Lack of funds was a recurring problem throughout the report, listed as a primary challenge in every section dealing with service delivery.

Parra chair Dawie van Wyk said while lack of funds was a contributing factor, there was also the issue of poor supervision and low productivity levels among municipal staff.

“Water and sewage services are not at an acceptable level.

”This is largely due to a poorly managed Infrastructure Department that do very little preventative maintenance.

“For example, the Nemato sewage stations have not operated for months and continuously spill raw sewage into the Kowie River. Poor communication from this department also exacerbates the frustration of the residents and ratepayers,” he said. However, Van Wyk added that there were areas where the municipality was improving.

“Positive areas where the municipality performs reasonably well are refuse collection, provision of electricity and maintenance of verges and the use of paving bricks to replace the old broken potholed tar roads.

“Refuse collection and electricity [outsourced to CDR] is at an acceptable level.”

He said the municipality had improved its response to the reporting of “faults” by appointing a Customer Care Officer.

However, Van Wyk also pointed to the concerning Auditor General’s report, which was released recently.

“The municipality debt collection is well below an acceptable level and the high water losses at 40% and electricity losses at 13.3% are highlighted in the AG’s Report every year as areas where revenue collection could be increased dramatically.

“The budgets for overtime and casual labour are always extremely high and not sustainable. Far too many consultants are used at a cost that is not sustainable. When directors are paid large salaries they should not be relying on consultants to do their work.”