Municipalities must show more respect

There is ample evidence that proactive management and communication skills are totally lacking among Zululand's municipalities.

Hardly a week goes by that we do not experience or read about community protests by frustrated residents - suburban and rural who are fed up with the incompetence of their local government officials and workers.

Countless rural folk still go without a regular supply of water, roads are not fixed, maintenance of crucial infrastructure and public facilities is not undertaken, by-laws are never enforced - the list goes on.

What is of concern is that this lack of proper municipal functioning has been going on for decades, yet it seems nobody in leadership positions appears to give a damn about the difficulties citizens endure because of their incompetent management.

Must we accept that nobody cares about creating an efficient environment for the benefit of society and that we have reached a point of no return in elected officials' mindsets on poor service delivery?

Why must ordinary people always fight, eventually turning to more violent means, to get a response from the municipal fat cats?

If officials simply do their work professionally, managers identify problems through regular inspections and then - this is very important - COMMUNICATE with their constituents proactively, much of the confrontational engagements will be eliminated.

We, the people, will no longer tolerate this kind of disrespect from the people we actually employ.

I trust we will make our voices heard during the upcoming local government elections.

P BURROWS