Bay must keep up with rezoning
THE backlog in rezoning applications in Nelson Mandela Bay has long been a headache – to say nothing of the most embarrassingly effective disincentive – for anyone wanting to do business in the city, big or small.
The news that the municipality has managed to wade through hundreds of submissions – some of which were an astonishing seven years old – will be a relief to many individual entrepreneurs and go some way to repairing its slipshod reputation in the eyes of corporates.
Many smaller businesses have been forced into the unenviable position of trading illegally as they wait for rezoning approval, while the delays have also cost the Bay at least one big investment in the last two years.
This is something which should never have been allowed to happen, given current job losses in the metro and the plight of the growing numbers of unemployed.
The fact that the human settlements department had to close its rezoning office doors to the public for three days to achieve this feat will be seen as a small price to pay. Yes, by all means – rather that than the continuing deferrals.
But that really underlines the essence of the original problem: staff shortages.
The fact that the rezoning department has only 11 of the required 30 staff members is revealing – and fully explains why it would need to shut down daily operations to have any hope of making a hole in the backlog.
Staffing must surely therefore be a priority for human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga.
It doesn’t make any sense not to process rezoning applications in an opportune manner – given that failure to do so ultimately costs the municipality money.
It is also critical that the metro is seen to be globally competitive and a properly functioning rezoning capability would seem like a minor mission to accomplish in order to achieve this standing.
With the overload of almost 400 rezoning applications set to be eradicated by the end of this month, every effort must be made to keep abreast of the workload so that the department does not slip back into the quagmire which could once again cost the city dearly.