QRPA experts to tackle issues

Power outages, refuse, first on list

The recently appointed interim committee of the Queenstown Ratepayers’ Association (QRPA) put their heads together on Wednesday to find strategic solutions to the 27 service delivery concerns of residents.

The engagement follows a public meeting held by the association at Hangklip Primary School last Thursday, which was attended by about 200 residents.

Some of the long overdue issues were reported by residents via the QRPA WhatsApp group, according to Dr WP Prinsloo, who heads the ratepayers’ association. Prinsloo said what had made the association members hopeful was having co-opted a team of experts who would serve in an advisory capacity to tackle the weightier matters.

The other interim committee members are vice-chair Samantha Alexander, secretary Dot van der Vyver and treasurer Roddy Sutton.

The additional members include Allister van Schoor, Onwaba Swartbooi and Adré Bartis.

The co-opted team of experts are André Sieberhagen, who will deal with technical services issues, Jacques van Zyl with finance matters, David Thomas with legal matters, Henry van Oosten with municipal valuations, Kevin Louw with technology and research, and Darryl Westran with communication and strategic planning.

The annual general meeting will take place this month, with the date still to be announced.

“There are about 27 problems that the ratepayers shared with us.

“We also did a survey which pointed out issues people are concerned about,” Prinsloo said.

The top issues, he said, included constant power outages, refuse removal, and unhappiness with the manner in which electricity cable fault repairs were conducted and which blew shortly after being attended to.

“There are a lot of people who have stuck up their hands who are sick and tired of the way the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality is running their affairs.

“We are quite excited because people are putting up their hands with expert advice and knowledge,” the chair said. “These are the first three that we will address.

“We have an expert on legal matters, on the electrical team and an engineer co-opted on to our committee who is currently advising the municipality on how to get power resolved in Top Town,” Prinsloo said.

Out of the four cables meant to supply Top Town, he said only one was working.

“One of the QRPA members has offered to repair the three cables that are faulty,” Prinsloo said.

He said they had not engaged with EMLM yet concerning the complaints, but had sent a request to the national cabinet representative, Dr Monde Tom.

Prinsloo said the association’s vision was simple – to get Komani functioning again with service delivery intact.

“We all have a right to live in this town and to run our businesses.

“Businesses were without power for three months after the western substation exploded.

“It is not acceptable and it must not be allowed to happen again.

“That is why we have these experts on board who will do proper inspections and advise on what needs to be done because no maintenance has been done on the infrastructure.”

As business people, all they wanted was to do business harmoniously in Komani, with services delivered.

He said the fact that garbage had not been collected for three weeks, along with refuse trucks that were not licenced, was unacceptable.

This was why the association aimed to be a pressure group for the change residents wanted to see.