|
by
05 February 2010
Municipal manager responds
Dear Editor,
Kindly allow me to respond to the two letters that were written by two members of the community, Elliot M and the Disgruntled. It is my considered view that as the Accounting Officer and Head of Administration, I would be failing in my duty if I don’t set the record straight. In doing so, I will deal with them one by one:
In his/her letter, Elliot M says next time we will vote and not dance. I will not comment on the voting part as I cannot understand why s/he decided to dance when others were voting. He goes on to ask a number of questions about the Kokstad roads in towns. He asks why haven’t they been fixed and why are they not looking like Mat. Let me deal with matters one by one;
1.Long queues at the municipal building – the people that you see standing on long queues at municipal buildings are those coming to buy prepaid electricity. I have explained to the community using the Viewpoint the challenges we have and the measures we have taken to rectify the situation.
2. Long queues at the Traffic – I think one of the things that the writer fails to appreciate is that Kokstad is the economic hub of areas stretching as far as Ixopo, Harding, Underberg, Matatiele and Mount Frere. As part of doing business in town these people use our licencing department for such services, thus increasing the number of people that need to be helped. Recently a number of licensing departments in some of the towns that I mentioned above, were closed by the Provincial Department of Transport, which meant that people previously serviced by those areas are now coming to Kokstad. With all these challenges we have tried our best to ensure that everyone on the line is attended to on the day that they came to our offices. Sadly we cannot turn people away simply because they are from out of town. Again on this matter we are talking to our council and the provincial department of transport for assistance in this regard
3.Dusty roads in town – sadly, the roads that the writer talks about were inherited by the new dispensation from the old regime, the roads that we are doing now in town have never seen the tar in their establishment and this will be the first .Funds for building roads come from the MIG grant in Pretoria and the municipal allocated budget. Sadly, these funds can only take that far. In addition to doing roads in town, we also have a responsibility to put tar in the township roads as we have done in Shayamoya and Horseshoe. To conclude the money that has been invested in roads over the past two years is in excess of R 50 million and the results are showing. If perhaps the areas we are covering are not the ones that Elliot M would have liked us to prioritise, that is deeply regretted.
4.Next time we will not dance but vote differently – I think this is a political statement and I will stay away from it. However, my advice to the community and writers to this paper, is that let us try by all means to separate issues of administration and service delivery, from politics. Once you do that it begins to cloud matters and we begin to ask questions whether the writer was genuinely complaining about the lack of service delivery or is on a political point scoring crusade.
I then want to go the Disgruntled
The disgruntled talks about the town that once was neat, tidy and well run which is now filthy dirty and decaying where laws means nothing. I am sure that the writer is referring to the time when the services s/he is referring to were only provide to the Kokstad and Bhongweni. I am also certain that at that time there was no Horseshoe, no Shayamoya and definitely no Extension. Without any information to back this statement, I am also certain that the population of Kokstad was half of what it is today. I am aware that one can argue that with the increase in the population so should the rate base. This has not been the case as most of these developments have catered for the low income earners in our society. Now the truth of the matter, is that with the growth that I have alluded to above, the same has not taken place in terms of the municipal capacity. In addition, it is not entirely correct to state that the ratepayers are paying and the municipality is not doing its work, as I am writing, the municipality is owed in excess of R 50 million by defaulting rate payers who are capable of paying. Having said all the above it is our intention to make sure that the Kokstad of tomorrow will be better than the Kokstad we had today and yesterday.
The writer further misleads the public by insinuating that apart from paying themselves huge salaries, municipal employees and councillors sit and do nothing. Sadly this is wrong, remuneration of municipal employees is regulated at national level and it is therefore devoid of any truth for anyone to say they pay themselves huge salaries. Equally, councillors’ salaries are regulated in terms of the Public Office Bearers Act and their remuneration and increases thereto are regulated by both the National and Provincial Minister responsible for local Government. So where do people get the idea that councillors and officials can just and decide that they will pay themselves so much money. Please let us not mislead the public.
Mxolisi Nkosi, responding on his capacity as a municipal manager
Thank you Fever!
Dear Fever,
Dealing with the staff at the East Griqualand Fever is an absolute pleasure. When placing adverts with them, they are professional, courteous and double check every aspect of the advert with us before placing it.
We’ve noticed also, when they deliver their papers they don’t try and display their papers in such a way that hides the opposition papers – as others do. They stand far above the rest. Keep it up, Fever!
Very impressed
Kokstad
Liefdevolle herinneringe
Beste fever
In liefdevolle herinnering aan ons man, vader en oupa William Biggs (Boetie) wat oorlede is op 16 Februarie 2009. Ons mis jou baie, maar weet dat jy veilig by ons Vader in die hemel is.
Die Biggs familie
Kokstad
"Familie soos skilpaaie"
Liewe Fever
My familie is soos skilpaaie, hulle kom net uit as ons moet, soos byeenkom vir begrafnisse. Die eerste week by die opsit is almal daar, almal treur, lag en gesels, staan mekaar by. Na die begrafnis kruip almal weer in hulle doppe. Ek dink hulle wil net die publiek wys hulle gee om.
Ek mis die dae toe dit nog swart emmers en kerslig gewees het, nou is dit ligte en “flush toilets”. Ek verlang na al die Kersfese, Paasfese, verjaarsdae, toe ons nog almal onder mekaar gekuier het. Die familie ry in hulle mooi karre en waai vir jou uit die kar uit, te reg om uit te klim en vra hoe gaan dit. Hulle is seker bang om uit te klim, miskien gaan ek vir hulle iets vra. Hulle het vergeet van waar hulle vandaan kom. Die hartseerste van alles is die kinders wat nie meer na die huis toe kom nie. Hulle het hulle eie familie, stel nie eens die kinder’s aan ons voor nie. Niggies en nefies, maak reuntjies en teugietjies.
Ek en my man is middeljarig en word nie eens uitgenooi na “gatherings” toe nie , net hulle se society vriende want hulle drink ciders en gin. Vir die familie wil ek net sê, daar waar die bloed nie loop nie, kruip dit. You can choose your friends but not your familiy. Kruip uit julle doppe, voor julle vet, lelik en onsmaaklik raak.
Van Ou skilpad wat die eerste “move” gaan maak
Kokstad |
