Take action against Coast Care slackers
COMPLAINTS about Coast Care workers - the people who are meant to keep Ndlambe's beaches and estuaries clean - have become so commonplace, it was no surprise to hear what happened this week.
Over the past two years Talk of the Town has received a number of letters and phone calls from annoyed residents reporting groups of formerly orange-garbed workers ambling along Port Alfred's beaches and along the Kowie River, dragging empty refuse bags and ignoring litter in their path.
Residents also mentioned that soon after the groups hit the beach they disappeared into the bushes on the dunes and only emerged again when it was time to knock off, their bags still empty.
The issue was also raised in Ward 10 last year, in which a report from Ndlambe's community protection services directorate revealed the provincial department of economic development and environmental affairs (Dedea) had pumped R8-million into the two-year Coast Care project, most of which goes to salaries.
The project was intended to be a job creation scheme for unemployed people, with special focus on women on youth.
As well as cleaning the beaches, the Coast Care workers are also meant to be used in recycling initiatives, assist with safeguarding and maintaining public facilities, help rehabilitate coastal ecosystems through eradication of alien vegetation, serve as information and tourist officers, patrol beach and public areas to ensure the safety of the public and tourists, and identify sick and injured animals on the beach.
There is little evidence of this broader mandate being carried out in Ndlambe.
Ward 10 committee members rightly questioned the effectiveness of the Coast Care project, which receives little monitoring by supervisors. Money was being wasted, they said.
Community protection services deputy director Fanie Fouche, who was previously chief conservation officer, has lamented Ndlambe has no direct oversight of the Coast Care workers, but may simply make requests to MBB Consulting Engineers, which was appointed by Dedea to manage the project.
TotT has written stories on the issue before, and MBB has responded that corrective measures have been taken against workers who were not doing their jobs, but this seems to have had no impact on the behaviour of the group.
When a journalist from TotT's sister newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, followed the workers on Monday, he allegedly found them sleeping in the bush on West Beach. He took photographs to back up his claim.
The workers allegedly reacted as guilty parties do, either by fleeing the scene, covering their faces, or showing aggression towards the journalist.
The workers' bosses took the allegations seriously, saw the photographs, and listened to both sides of the story at a follow-up meeting on Tuesday.
We are disappointed to report there was no humble acknowledgement of wrongdoing on the part of the workers. Rather, they hauled out the hoary race card, alleging the journalist disturbed them on their lunch hour and hurled racial abuse at them.
Armed with the knowledge of the history of complaints about these workers, we hope MBB is not swayed by their attempted hatchet job, but rather heeds the facts and takes appropriate action.
- Jon Houzet
