Meeting to better governance

CONCERNED by frequent service delivery protests, the ANC in the Sarah Baartman region has summoned all of its 95 councillors to an urgent meeting today at which the party will table a report with recommendations on how to improve governance.

The meeting at the Sarah Baartman Municipality's council chambers in Port Elizabeth will work through some of the service delivery issues raised by residents from various Eastern Cape towns during the ANC's campaign in the run-up to the elections earlier this year.

The ANC also hopes to come up with measures to help curb a series of violent protests in towns such as Kirkwood.

Regional secretary Scara : "Kirkwood is an ANC stronghold and there is no organisation that can tilt the thinking of our people, but it is the negligence of the municipality that sometimes leads to these protests by not having contingency plans when there is no water in Moses Mabhida township, for example.

"We will be coming up with ways for the municipality to improve public participation and [respect] labour forums.

"Sometimes our own councillors take short cuts when taking decisions and that impacts on service delivery," he said.

Kirkwood residents went on the rampage in September, setting historical municipal buildings alight and vandalising the ANC's constituency office during a protest.

Last month they blocked roads with burning tyres, demanding improved services.

The protests erupted after the Sundays River Valley Municipality wrote off R84-million in irregular expenditure. Residents believed municipal bosses were corrupt and had squandered funds meant for services.

"We will table the report with recommendations on how councillors should tackle government and political issues like the cohesiveness of the ANC caucus," Njadayi said.

"We will also remind them of [their] primary task and address issues raised by residents during our door-to-door campaign." - Mkhululi Ndamase