More people on umngeni indigent register
A Month-and-a-half into its financial year, the umngeni Local Municipality in Kwazulu-natal has outlined its plans to improve service delivery in various departments.
The municipality, in a statement, said discussions are under way about roads, domestic refuse collections, street lights, Eskom, illegal electricity usage, Hilton electricity, the traffic department and an indigent incentive policy.
Municipalities’ financial year runs from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. The financial year is broken down into quarters.
umngeni municipality mayor councillor Christopher Pappas, who took office after the local government elections in November 2021, said as money comes in every month and as grants are paid to the municipality, they were able to spend money on service delivery.
The municipality is in the final stages of appointing service providers for work scheduled to be completed in the first quarter.
This includes R3.4 million to resurface Amber Avenue; R4.1m to resurface Dick Street; and R1m for repairs to Curry’s Post Road.
Pappas said work packages for different areas have been put together in order to continue with work on potholes.
The municipality has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SA National Roads Agency to do repairs to Hilton Avenue and Old Howick Road.
This is to compensate for the increased traffic volumes and pressures on those roads caused by the N3.
Pappas said umngeni currently has no roads master plan. Such a plan will cost about R2.5m to have done.
He said parts for the old high pressure sodium and high pressure mercury vapour street lights have become very expensive and hard to come by.
“We will completely replace street lights with new LED lights totalling R4 million. About four months ago umngeni engaged with Msunduzi Municipality about the level of service being offered to Hilton residents, including the number of outages. We have noted improvements,” Pappas said.
Illegal dumping remained a challenge for the municipality, costing an estimated millions of rand a year to clean up. Five new refuse compactor trucks will be purchased this year to reduce the number of delays experienced due to a shortage of vehicles.
The municipality will be spending R24m between now and June 2023 on new refuse and landfill equipment. This money will be spent over three allocations.
“Each municipality is required to document and keep records of poor and vulnerable households.
“Eight months ago when taking office there were 133 people on the umngeni indigent register. Today there are over 3 050 people on the register. (They) are benefiting from free basic services,” Pappas said.
The municipality has intensified the fight against illegal electricity usage. Meter audits and disconnections are ongoing.
Pappas said their traffic department was still struggling with inoperative vehicles and were looking at purchasing a number of vehicles to remedy the situation.