The uThukela District Municipality has owned up acknowledging that there is a lack of service delivery within its borders. The district municipality further admitted that there is a crisis on the horizon, which is sure to impact thousands of people.
The uThukela District Municipality oversees the local municipalities in Ladysmith, Estcourt and Bergville. During the course of this year, Estcourt and Ladysmith residents were plagued by water supply issues.
With water outages disrupting the lives of many, in recent months the District Municipality has pointed out that sabotage and vandalism played a role.
While considering this, the uThukela District Municipality has said that the South African Constitution states that municipalities have the responsibility to ensure all citizens are provided with services to satisfy their basic needs. However, the uThukela District Municipality has admitted that it is aware of the fact that there’s a looming crisis related to the issues of water and sewer provision.
“The municipality is equally aware that public members and the general business community are anxious and under immense pressure from compromised municipal service delivery. This is compounded by crippling challenge as it is currently operating with an unfunded budget,” explained the communications unit.
However, the municipality stressed it had water personnel who are there to assist the community and are deployed in all three local municipalities, all of whom report directly to the General Manager: Water, Sanitation and Technical Services.
The district municipality added that in essence, it has become difficult for the Municipal Manager to deal with operational issues as it is the responsibility of Area Engineers and Superintendents.
With this in mind and due to the onslaught of water issues, the municipality’s Communications Unit said, “In the event where the public do not find any joy from this staff, in terms of a hierarchical level, they should escalate their concern to the General Manager: Water, Sanitation and Technical Services. Over the last 6 to 8 months the Municipal Manager has found himself inundated with calls from the public pushing him to deal with operational issues which severely compromised strategic leadership that needed to be provided.”
“My wish going forward is for the public to deal with Area Engineers and Superintendents who are in close proximity with the issues hence I am giving out their contact details”, said the Municipal Manager, Mr MB Mnguni.
General Manager: Water, Sanitation and Technical Services, Mr N Khuzwayo – 078 163 7338.
Area Engineer: Mr TE Mngoma TE – 0823556772
With major problems on the rise in the district, what are your thoughts?
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