City residents have blamed the financial struggles of Sol Plaatje Municipality on the “fat cat tendencies” of municipal officials.
CITY residents have blamed the financial struggles of Sol Plaatje Municipality on the “fat cat tendencies” of municipal officials.
During a visit from the portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) earlier this week, former DA councillor Philip Vorster advised the committee that the staff complement at Sol Plaatje Municipality was bloated with 2,500 staff members, while the organogram only accommodated 1,500 employees.
“This means people are being employed so that they can earn a salary. Many staff members have no work to do. If you ask them why they are not working, they tell you it’s none of your business.
“With a budget of R2.2 billion, about R800 million goes towards paying salaries while about R800 million is used to pay for bulk services.”
Vorster believed that the R5 million that was written off from the account of Beefmaster in exchange for “repairing” the Homevale wastewater treatment plant, had not been approved by council.
“You cannot barter and trade off debt . . . it is illegal.”
Tumelo Mosikare, from the Sol Plaatje Ratepayers Union, indicated that the municipality only had a R2.2 billion budget on paper.
“It is classified as a category B municipality so that salaries can be inflated.”
He pointed out that the municipality was intent on generating revenue through charging a R260 basic electricity charge.
“Electricity will increase in April and we cannot afford another price hike. The municipality owes Eskom R719 million while most consumers are using prepaid electricity. We do not know if the revenue from electricity is being used to fund exorbitant salaries.
“Parliament needs to step in. People are angry, although burning tyres outside the municipality offices is not productive. The blocking of electricity by those who are in arrears is not sustainable.”
The CEO of the Northern Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sharon Steyn, stated that businesses were leaving the city because there was no service delivery or co-operation from the municipality.
“The potholes, running sewage and general state of the city is a disgrace. There are no incentives to attract investment or business to the city, while business has to pay for non-existent services. The municipality charges the highest electricity tariffs in the country.
“Who was given the tender to fix the potholes, because the potholes return shortly after they are filled? This means that the work was not done properly.”
Steyn added that nightly water shutdowns were still being implemented although the city had experienced an abundance of rain.
The chairperson of the Frances Baard Business Forum, Lesego Maris, pointed out that Covid-19 funding was made available for tuck shops in Galeshewe while there are not even three businesses that were owned by locals.
“The foreign-owned tuck shops did not qualify to apply for the relief.”
He added that poverty-stricken residents rely on pension payouts and child grants.
Maris stated that the majority of tenders were awarded to service providers from outside the Province while local businesses had the necessary capacity.
A city resident, Kebonye Moeng, told the committee that she has been waiting for 23 years for a house.
“I made an application in 2000 when my son was in Grade 1. He has since graduated from school and is 21 years old and I am still making use of other people’s addresses.”
Sol Plaatje executive mayor Kagisho Sonyoni said that they were the only municipality that increased the electricity tariff last year by 4.5 percent instead of the proposed 7.5 percent.
He stated that the Homevale wastewater treatment plant was working. “Cable theft led to the collapse of the plant but we are seeing an improvement after security was beefed up.”
Sonyoni added that the organogram would be reviewed to reduce the bloated staff complement. “We will get rid of people who are not making an impact.”
He said that water shutdowns had to be implemented because the floods had made the water muddy.
“The water is shut down while people are sleeping to fix the process so that residents do not have to drink contaminated water. We also need to prevent a total water shutdown as the reservoir water levels are low.”
The chairperson of the municipal public accounts committee, Frikkie Banda, stated that they would institute a forensic investigation into the Beefmaster matter.
ANC member of Parliament Bheki Hadebe reminded council that they were supposed to be servants of the people.
“The meeting was scantily attended and is a sign that the community has lost hope in the leadership.”
