4th July 2007, Page 2 - Edition 196

The Midlands Herald

Page 2 — 4th July 2007

From the Chamber — Council Matters Council Comment uMngeni Spin! If you ever doubted that a minority could achieve anything against a majority, or were unconvinced of the necessity of a watchdog of our Constitution, events in the uMngeni Council can be reassuring. On average, for every 15 issues Clr Tim Lindsay-White confronted by the DA and IFP, only one is raised by the majority party. In some meetings the proportion is as much as 40:1! This either means that all decisions have been agreed between the ANC caucus and municipal management before hand (which doesn’t bode well for neutrality of the public service), or they simply do not need to ask questions! When compelled to observe proportional representation in the Executive Committee the ANC chief whip declared that they were not admitting they were wrong, and did not need to surrender an executive committee seat, but had chosen to do so in the interests of cooperation. But only after strongly trying to resist it and a walk out by the DA! When the ANC pushed for a 304% salary increase, despite opposition objections, National Government itself stepped in lowering the upper limits, vindicating the minority’s stance and resulting in the saviour to the ratepayer of almost R1,3m. Even though the increase was moderated, it didn’t prevent the majority retaliating by questioning why the opposition councillors had accepted even that! When the council agenda sought to resolve “That the Mayor be assisted by Management to acquire alternative accommodation to be used as a Mayoral Residence” the Municipal Manager, together with the support of the ANC caucus, promptly interpreted it to mean permission to purchase a house for the Mayor! Investigations continue in this regard with the MEC currently being questioned in the Provincial Legislature, and a motion calling for explanations and a report on the events resulting in the Mayor needing long term body guards still pending. When objections were made against the Municipal Manager having contravened legislation by refusing public and councillor observers to the Oversight Committee meeting tasked with analysing the Annual Report, his elaborate explanation that he had not done so, and in any case Councillors in that particular case were not to be treated the same as the public, was more and more unconvincing the more he tried. Which brings us to the rates debacle. On three separate occasions in the press the Mayor, incredulously, tried to take credit for the reduction in the Rates Randage from 1,5 cents in the Rand to 1 cent. What has he got to say to the fact that he and his caucus in league with the Municipal manager arrogantly resisted at 1,5 cents and 1,35 cents, ignored 200 pages of well-reasoned submissions, a petiContinued on third column

The need for us to persevere The past ten days has been a most momentous time. Quite noteworthy has been the situation of need of a community struck by “the fire of 2007”. And amidst all this something that leaves one stunned has been the Editor Russell Barnes vacuum of silence that has emanated from the local municipality. For a start, our municipal manager and our mayor were away at the ANC strategy conference in Johannesburg — what on earth was the municipal manager doing during working hours enmeshing himself in ANC politics? — and it would probably have been asking a lot to expect them to leave a high-powered conference and luxury accommodation to come back and be here with their subjects at this time of need. Money, perhaps? The experience last week of the chairman of the Howick & District Landowners Association, Bobby Hoole, echoes this. Presumably since municipal manager Dumisani Vilakazi allows no-one but himself to make a major decision, it was not surprising that it took three days after the fire on Monday that uMngeni Municipality first called a meeting to address the issue. “Because of another commitment I was late for the meeting,” Mr Hoole told me last Saturday, “and when I arrived my secretary briefed me: not much had transpired. “I told the meeting that in all my time driving around I had not met up with any of their officials, and not any one of the associations like the HDLA or the Nottingham Road Farmers’ Association, or any other, had been contacted by them.” The Department of Agriculture had become involved, touring the district from first thing Wed morning. “The Department was at the meeting, so the rest of the proceedings were really between them and me; uMngeni Municipality doesn’t know which way to turn. “They didn’t understand the extent of the damage and the area. Indeed, three days later no-one had yet been out there to assess it.” Municipal officials were then to meet with Province in Pietermaritzburg on Friday morning, he reported, adding: “I haven’t heard from them since. No reassurance at all. It wouldn’t have taken much for the disaster management manager to make a simple call and keep me informed.” Tellingly, Mr Hoole then went on to describe the efforts of the private sector and provincial departments, whom he praised. The Red Cross has been co-ordinating relief donations of clothing, blankets and mattresses, while the Department of Social Welfare has been determining the extent, and attempting to get food parcels out to households. Eskom were out from Tuesday effecting repairs, while Telkom had had to wait for additional cable stock (since the demand was above their normal requirements) until Thursday and had then sent “about 12 contractor units” out on the fields. “The community has been fantastic,” Mr Hoole said. But the lack of municipal leadership is not surprising. Sometime this past year the DA raised the issue of a disaster management plan at Council, and received the astonishing reply: “We’re not expecting a disaster.” Perhaps we should really be asking Refrigeration ourselves, for how much longer can we put up with all this? appliances, phone 0333304430.’ Nevertheless, there are some encouraging TC signs: In the adjacent column Clr Tim Lindsay-White points out several successes Thank you that the DA has been having. For one, we can congratulate ourselves on CINDI — Thank you to our rates campaign. In Council a month ago all those people who the chief financial officer, Bertus van der have so generously supported our CINDI collecMerwe, claimed with specific elaboration that tion point during the a number of hitherto unexpected year. contributions, from the District Municipality Any small contribuand others, enabled the ruling party to revisit tions of toys or children’s clothes in reathe budget and bring down the rate randage sonable condition can from 1,35 cents to 1,00, but we didn’t believe be left at Midlands Vet him. What did it, actually, was pressure Clinic, 103 Main Road, coming down from national level. Howick. 29/06 We had our success. And we must persist.

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WARD 5 REPORT Clr Tim Lindsay-White The recent horrific fires have devastated the Ward 5 area from the Curry’s Post Road, across the Karkloof, to the Hilton College Road. We owe a debt of gratitude that cannot be repaid to those brave and selfless fire-fighting personnel who lost their lives in the protection of our community, livestock, wildlife and possessions; our heartfelt condolences go out to their families. We wish those who were injured speedy recoveries. Thanks go out to all those who helped from all parts of our municipality, without whom the situation would have been far worse, to MP Greg Krumbock, councillors Maire Grueneberg, Pam Passmoor and Mary Friday who monitored and assisted the community into the early hours of morning during this time of grave concern. Amidst these traumatic events, it is disconcerting that uMngeni’s commendable achievement of being the first municipality in the country to re-establish its Ward Committee structures has come to nothing. Despite meeting monthly, since June last year, and regularly submitting detailed minutes of meetings, the municipality has totally failed to respond to the Ward’s needs, or even communicate back. Wards 2,5 and 6 have received absolutely no response to their members’ submissions on behalf of their communities, prompting them to question the rational for continuing. Other committees are believed not to have been properly constituted whilst a couple are not functional at all. The municipal manager and speaker are implored to urgently respond to matters raised and rectify matters before the Ward Committee structure collapses irreparably and needs to be reconstituted. Members are compelled to regurgitate the same requirements raised six months ago, losing enthusiasm to raise new issues where existing ones have still not been attended to. Continued from 1st column

tion by over 2 000 concerned ratepayers and a march by over 3 000! The DA, alone, objected, insisting that National Treasury Municipal Finance Management Act Circulars 14 and 41 be adopted to ensure budget growth guidelines and macro-economic policy were observed. A letter from the National Treasury confirmed that the municipality was “advised to follow the correct procedures and processes, and to seriously consider local economic circumstances, investment opportunities and affordability levels” and that they “subsequently reconsidered and revised their 2007/ 8 tabled budget. No accounting for uMngeni Spin! R30 million was saved the ratepayer not by the Mayor and his caucus, but the so called vocal minority of the DA and the Concerned Ratepayers Group. You can contact Tim on 083 379 8051

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