More proof of ANC Mismanagement

The Witness: "Mess during dump strike"
05 Feb 2009
Thando Mgaga Chaos and mess were the order of the day at the Pietermaritzburg landfill site off Woodhouse Road yesterday afternoon as residents, companies and contractors employed by the Msunduzi Municipality dumped rubbish on the main road on the orders of the site’s staff, who have downed tools and refuse to work.The staff instructed dumpers to offload their rubbish on the road, saying they are fed up with management’s neglect of the site. The pile quickly grew to include smelly domestic garbage, broken television sets, beer bottles, garden refuse and old car seats. Some of the dumpers could not stomach the mess and opted to take their loads away again. Frustrated residents told The Witness that dumping on the road would cause more harm than good, saying they were worried it would pose a health hazard for the municipal staff who would have to clean up the mess. Landfill supervisor Boyzie Molefe said the employees refused to work because they do not have equipment to carry out their duties.Molefe said management has for more than three years failed to ensure that the equipment is in good working order. The equipment includes tipper trucks that carry the rubbish to the main landfill site, water pumps to quell fires and a compressor to flatten the rubbish.He said the landfill site is in a state of disarray. The weighbridge is not operating properly following the theft of computers and hard drives containing information about how much each load of rubbish should cost to dump. Molefe said the manual system in place has angered some residents who have ended up refusing to pay. He said that previously, residents would be provided with a slip from the computer giving the cost, but now some residents suspect that the charges are guesswork and feel cheated.He added that the workers want the site to be upgraded. Some protesters complained about a lack of adequate security. They said there are three security guards and that there has been a spate of thefts of batteries from the municipal vehicles recently. Zwe Hulane, deputy municipal manager for community services, which is charge of the site, convened a meeting with the site manager, the waste management manager, Molefe and SA Municipal Workers’ Union shop stewards to stop the chaos. Site manager Cyril Naidoo admitted that some of the equipment has been broken, but said it is being fixed. Hulane said the issues raised by the workers were news to him, but that he is committed to dealing with the problems. He said some of the issues were not properly handled by the site’s administration. “Some of the concerns can easily be dealt with. I am not happy about some aspects of administration and how the workers approached their concerns,” said Hulane. The parties agreed to meet again today.
thandom@witness.co.za

Comments:

Posted by Anonymous on 06 Feb 2009
If the municipality employed intelligent, honest and decent hardworking people with the will to work, I think that would solve half the problems at the dump. The other half is that the municipality are wasting so much of our money, and not allocating sufficient funds to equipment and infrastructure maintenance and expansion - but they drive around in fancy cars which we pay for! The municipality needs to get their priorities right.

Pietermaritzburg in Spending Chaos

We have been saying for years now Hlatshwayo and Haswell has to go. They are incapable of running a city yet they coining it on payday. Ratepayers can no longer afford keeping on these incompetant ANC brothers and sisters - it is no longer financially viable.

The Witness: "Msunduzi in spending mess"
05 Feb 2009



Nalini Naidoo THE Msunduzi Municipality has blown its entire overtime budget of R33 million seven months into the financial year — overspending it by a whopping R5 million. Heads must roll, say executive committee (Exco) members, in particular that of municipal manager Rob Haswell. Haswell is also in hot water for missing the deadline for submitting the municipality’s annual report to the provincial treasury. Mayor Zanele Hlatshwayo said she is aware of other issues of non-compliance, such as outstanding signatures on performance agreements for senior staff. She noted that these are management issues and she was told that management meetings are not taking place any longer.The council’s finance committee heard yesterday that the draft annual report should have been tabled before a full council sitting in January. The session did not take place because the speaker was told there were no items on the agenda. Hlatshwayo said Haswell should have alerted the speaker about the deadline for the report.But it was the overtime issue that most alarmed councillors. Deputy municipal manager Roy Bridgemohan said the previous high overtime bill was attributable to the excessive number of vacant posts, and R21 million was spent filling the posts. Instead of being reduced, overtime charges went up.Hlatshwayo called this poor management. Councillor Pops Chetty said every department has a financial manager. “Things are out of control, Somebody has to take responsibility,” he said. There were suggestions that officials who don’t manage their overtime budgets should be made to pay from their own pockets. Haswell was attending a funeral in Cape Town yesterday. Deputy Mayor Mervyn Dirks said he must be called before next Thursday’s Exco Meeting to provide answers.An analysis of the overtime shows that the two worst performing departments are waste management and traffic. Previously in waste management, the excuse has been broken trucks, meaning fewer crews taking longer to collect rubbish, but the vehicles have been repaired and replaced. The finance committee resolved that no more money will be given for overtime until the municipal manager and his management team submit a detailed report to Exco about control measures to be put in place to keep the spending in check.

The Witness

The Witness: "‘Blue light’ bodyguard in court for shooting
14 Jan 2009"

Blue Light Probe - Opinion published by the Editor of The Witness

The Witness: "Blue-light probe"
12 Jan 2009
The Editor
With another report of shots being fired at a motorist by a blue-light VIP protection squad, news that the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is to investigate the conduct of these units is welcome. In the many months since the intimidation of ordinary motorists by these flying convoys was first reported on the roads around Pietermaritzburg, this bullying behaviour seems to have spread across the country and has become increasingly outrageous. Up until now, instead of addressing the problem, the authorities have either dismissed the complaints or tried to browbeat the public and the press into submission. This too seems to have come to a head with reports that after the latest incident, apparently involving President Kgalema Motlanthe’s convoy, equipment belonging to SABC journalists on the scene was confiscated. If the officers were performing their legitimate duty correctly, this crude attempt to censor news coverage of the incident could have no justification. The ICD probe vindicates the concern expressed by the public through the media. Things should never have come to this point. Certainly VIPs need protection, but a properly skilled police force can surely provide this without the flagrant disregard for the safety and the rights of the ordinary public that is exhibited here. The fact that this bullying has gone unchecked for so long, and has actually worsened, is an indictment of the senior leadership in this task force. It is an indictment, too, of the political leadership that travels in these convoys. It can be granted that in an emergency situation, the person being protected must leave matters wholly in the hands of the professional officers, but this does not prevent public representatives from exercising their authority responsibly and setting in advance the para-meters for escorting official vehicles. It is not necessary for routine journeys to be conducted as if they are dire, life-threatening emergencies. In the final analysis, in fact, this is a test of the political leadership’s commitment to democracy and the rule of law. When no real crisis threatens, these speeding convoys are nothing less than an arrogant and lawless abuse of power.