DA Comments on BCMM's Annual Report

Democratic Alliance Buffalo City

Input to Municipal Public Accounts Committee – Annual Report 2010/11

1.     Challenges on Basic Service Delivery

1(a)        Water:

Water availability and quality remains an ongoing challenge for the municipality. Attention must be drawn to the municipality’s inability to meet its stated targets due to poor planning and expenditure. The municipality’s ability to monitor water losses through telemetry also leaves much to be desired: water losses continue for weeks due to broken pipes, leaks and poor monitoring.

Lastly, the availability of storage and conveyance infrastructure requires urgent attention. The stress placed on the Upper Buffalo Regional Water Services Scheme and its inability to meet the needs of communities on the East Coast cannot be underemphasized. Additional storage and conveyance infrastructure must be prioritized.

1(b)        Electricity:

The biggest issue facing the municipality’s ability to deliver electricity is its maintenance and upgrading of existing infrastructure. This needs to be prioritized before new electrification projects are undertaken. It is no good electrifying hundreds of houses, if our existing infrastructure and reticulation is unable to support the demand.

Availability of purchase points for pre-paid electricity must also be addressed as a matter of urgency. Currently, Buffalo City is the only metro where one is unable to purchase electricity online, and the scarcity of points of purchase (particularly in Mdantsane) is unacceptable.

The recommendations of the Status Quo Assessment must be implemented immediately.

The Democratic Alliance is pleased with the implementation of the street lighting projects, as this goes a long way towards a safer city.

Urgent attention must be given to attraction and retention of skilled staff – particularly electrical engineers.

 Enforcement actions against illegal users (izinyoka) must be taken – including disconnection and fining. Closer co-operation with BCMM Law Enforcement is vital in this regard.

1(c)        Sanitation:

Similar to Electricity, insufficient budget is being made available to the Sanitation Department to maintain and upgrade existing infrastructure, before adding additional demand to an already overburdened system.  In addition, urgent attention must be given to the waste water treatment works to ensure that they are properly maintained, efficiently managed and operated, and are fully compliant with the relevant legislation/regulations.

1(d)        Road Maintenance:

While numerous highlights are shown in the Annual Report, this does not reflect a balanced and objective analysis of the real situation in Buffalo City. Numerous complaints are received daily about the poor condition of the roads, the lack of pothole maintenance, and the seeming inability of BCMM to address these conditions with any degree of urgency.

This section of the Annual Report should be rejected due to its non-conformance with reporting standards. It fails to highlight measurable departmental objectives, or state how the department has performed in achieving those objectives.

1(e)        Waste Management:

Anyone who has spent any time at all in Buffalo City will know that the nickname “Slummies” is well-deserved! Our city looks like a dump site, and contrary to the comments in the Annual Report, street sweeping and refuse collection appears to be a haphazard affair.  Other metro municipalities utilize a round-the-clock shift system for this purpose, and work closely with Law Enforcement to minimize littering. This needs to be addressed critically, if BCM is to recover its standing as an investment destination.

Landfill management is equally problematic. There appears to be little effort on the part of the municipality to encourage recycling, the landfill sites are permitted to burn uncontrolled, and security at these sites is laughable. The Second Creek and Round Hill sites must be given particular attention, as these are impacting on the health and wellbeing of neighbouring residents.

The Democratic Alliance also seeks further input on the rehabilitation and licencing of landfill sites.

1(f)         Housing & Town Planning:

 Several issues stand out in this department:

·         Inadequate/mismanaged identification and verification of beneficiaries

·         Slow pace of development (in particular EIA process – we need to lobby the Provincial Government to fastrack housing EIAs!)

·         Extremely slow progress in transferring title deeds to beneficiaries

·         Inadequate/improper communication between department and beneficiaries

·         Political interference in the housing function

·         Quality control of building contractors

From a town planning perspective, the major issue appears to be the delay in processing requests from the public, with some taking as long as two years!

1(g)        Public Transport:

The Democratic Alliance is extremely concerned about the slow pace of progress on the Bus Rapid Transport system. In addition, better management of public transport facilities must be addressed (especially taxi ranks and stop-offs!) In this regard, recent developments at the City of Cape Town should be investigated – specified large taxi ranks have had a dedicated Metro Police unit established there specifically to improve passenger safety and security, reduce criminal activity, address the roadworthiness and licensing of vehicles, minimize littering and generally improve the experience of passengers.

2.     Internal Operations

2(a)        Human Resources:

As has been communicated on numerous occasions, the DA is extremely concerned at the delays in appointing senior officials on a permanent basis. Examples of this include the City Manager, Chief Financial Officer and several senior manager level appointments.

Ongoing absenteeism and ever increasing overtime are indicative of poor supervision and management. Urgent steps need to be taken to ensure attendance and to provide a better shift system in order to reduce overtime.

Urgent consideration must be given to attraction and retention measures, such as scarcity allowances for certain designated posts.

2(b)        Performance Management:

Contrary to the requirements of legislation, Buffalo City’s performance management system is dysfunctional, with no clear objectives for individuals, limited monitoring and evaluation, no performance management policy,  and no-one taking responsibility for the problem.

3.     Economic Development

3(a)        Tourism:

Buffalo City is rapidly losing its lustre as a tourism destination. This is due to a number of factors, not least the rapidly deteriorating infrastructure, poor sanitation and the termination of Tourism Buffalo City and the Buffalo City Development Agency. No significant steps have been taken to address these issues, and the longer they are allowed to persist, the less likely it is that BCMM will regain its former attraction.

3(b)        Local Economic Development:

Too many LED projects are unsustainable, with no business plans, and seeking short term employment for the lucky few.  BCMM needs to relook its LED model to seek to create an enabling environment where businesses wish to invest and employment is created through private sector initiatives. The municipality must  move away from the hand-out mentality it currently employs as LED.

4.     Financial Management

The DA has repeatedly expressed its concerns over the poor financial management in the municipality, and this has been borne out by the adverse audit opinion issued by the Auditor General. Contrary to the belief in the ANC, this is not an improvement! It indicates material misstatements and incomplete records. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure exceeded R349 million. The Ernst & Young report (the recommendations of which, although adopted as resolutions of council, still have not been implemented!) covers much of the same timeframe and identifies approximately R2 billion of unauthorized, irregular, wasteful and corrupt tenders.

Digging deeper, this malaise can be attributed to:

1)      A lack of oversight by the Council

2)      A lack of political will to ensure clean government

3)      Poor supply chain management practices

4)      Incompetent/incapable staff

5)      No permanent Chief Financial Officer and no permanent Accounting Officer (City Manager)

In fact, the DA attempted to move a motion to address some of these issues, but the debate was stifled by the council’s speaker.

Contributing to BCMM’s financial situation is its inability to collect revenue timeously, and its inability to properly plan and spend its budgets. This is particularly concerning when one considers that the bulk of capital expenditure is funded by grant funding!

Statement prepared by DA BCMM Caucus Spokesperson, Cllr Kevin Mileham.