4th July 2007, Page 3 - Edition 196

The Midlands Herald

Page 3 — 4th July 2007

Continued from page 1

Millionaire municipal manager 13.4% of the total wage bill (the other 415 employees sharing the balance). “All this despite questionable service delivery and two consecutive qualified audits from the auditorgeneral, with communications from ratepayers and opposition councillors

to the municipality consistently left unanswered, unwillingness to observe its own bylaws, electricity and water losses amounting to 35%, and debtors in the region of R100 million, the level of service delivery is certainly not proportional to the salaries,” Clr Passmoor added.

Concern expressed at fire-fighting preparedness

Is uMngeni Municipality living on borrowed money? R50 million more borrowed In the last two financial years, uMngeni Municipality has been granted loans of R30 million and a further loan by ABSA of R20 million was agreed to by council when the budget was approved, with objection raised by DA councillors. The total of loans granted is R50 million. R4,7 million has been budgeted for the payment of interest, but with interest rates on the rise, this amount has already increased to R5 million a year. “Is this municipality remaining afloat on borrowed money?” Clr Pam Passmoor asks. “Every three months, a financial report is provided and if the actual income (as opposed to the charged out income) is compared to the expenditure, it would appear that our expenditure exceeds our income by almost R1 million a month.” The Democratic Alliance, at a meeting of council in April convened to consider the

draft budget, three times questioned chief financial officer Bertus van der Merwe about the source of the surplus money in the town’s coffers. Mr van der Merwe replied that the municipality has in recent months been successful in bringing money in from the ratepayers. He said that at the end of February the investments stood at R7 million, but by April they had increased by R16,5 million to R23,5 million. However, the Democratic Alliance councillors feel that this is a physical impossibility. They believe that uMngeni’s debt position is critical and continues to grow unabated but are unable to confirm this as the debt control meetings, which are supposed to be held every two months, have not taken place since February.

Attacks continue down by the river A student was attacked on the river near Midmar Dam while on a training cycle ride three weeks ago. He told The Herald that he had heard of two other similar incidents on the river that same month. The youth was in the habit of cycling along the river for regular exercise, from Oakleigh Drive to a point near the dam wall, before turning back. Three weeks ago, shortly after he had turned back he was confronted by three men aged in their mid- to late twenties.

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Above: a fireman attempts to douse flames at Elaine’s Country Comforts at 1 Campbell Road, which burnt down on Wednesday night, 20th June. Both Elaine Bromilow and Sally Evertse of Sally’s Workshop, who also operated on the premises, lost everything in the fire. Lack of confidence has been expressed at the town’s preparedness to tackle fires. After a major fire swept through country districts the following Monday, the chairman of the Howick & District Landowners Association, Bobby Hoole, criticised uMngeni’s assistance at that fire, saying that a large fire engine that carries 4 000 litres of water had remained parked for two weeks at its premises in Dicks Street after it broke down. It was only inspected last Friday for first time. This was the vehicle that a month ago was unable to respond to a burning house in York Road because of being unlicensed. “uMgungundlovu District Council sent a vehicle up from Pietermaritzburg,” he said. “It arrived at Curry’s Post at 1 pm on Monday but was unable to draw water from Tetworth farm dam near the fire line. It was fine in town with fire hydrants but was obviously not 100% in working condition. So every time it needed to refill it had to drive 18 kilometres to Howick, and probably was an hour off the line.”

Dropping his bicycle, he leapt into the water and crossed to the other side but the men followed him and easily caught up to him, as he was tired from his exertions. They took his Nokia cellphone with enhanced headset and wallet with small change from him before making off. He said that he now no longer cycles there. * In the other incident, two weeks ago a young woman was walking home along Main Road near the Curry’s Post turn-off when a man accosted her and stole her cellphone.

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