Kouga needs a shake-up

JUST when one decides to give the Kouga Municipality a break by easing up on the bad reports, up pops yet more proof of their misdemeanours, leaving us reeling and astonished at the absolute low level of their incompetence.
Apart from that, how terribly embarrassing it is to be exposed in the national media. I am of course referring to the article in the Sunday Times last Sunday where the KM was named as the worst performing municipality in the Eastern Cape. (See Pg 2).
While the current council keeps blaming the previous one, and insists they inherited all the woes from them, not much in terms of good governance seems to be forthcoming from the present one either.
Their new buzzword: "turnaround strategy” is yet to be seen being implemented anywhere.
Again I have to iterate: Our Times extended an invitation to sit around a table and discuss the way forward in order to be objective and fair to them. This was shunned on two occasions, leading me to believe they either do not deem this publication worthy of their attention, they have nothing to offer our readers, or perhaps they are too petrified of being measured by what they might commit to further down the line.
Alas, as a good many of the country's problems are still squarely blamed on the apartheid government, 18 years later, I suppose 10 months in the hot seat is still early days.
Should someone, anyone competent, stand up to acknowledge the massive challenges, admit that the necessary skills are non-existent, take ownership of the finances of the Kouga, and ultimately the responsibility of turning matters around, perhaps we still can turn this ship around.
It is clear that the people in charge of the finance department (not sure who this is as the CEO was recently fired) are incapable of handling such a large budget.
The Kouga is a corporation. It should be run as such. Under-performing officials should be sacked, not strung along endlessly and ultimately given a golden handshake.
A wake-up call is long overdue. Thank goodness the government seems to have at last caught on, and the announcement of stringent screening of officials involved in any procurement deals is a relief. No more self-serving and conflict of interest will be tolerated.
Nice words – let's hope they will be adhered to.
– Cindy Liebenberg