Municipality reaches just half of service delivery targets

The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality achieved just more than half of its service delivery targets for the first six months of the 2018/2019 financial year.

Some of its biggest failures were reaching its targets for new water connections meeting the required minimum standards, filling of vacancies and eradicating the bucket toilet system.

This is according to the municipality’s mid-term performance report, which was noted by the council on Thursday but not debated by any of the councillors.

The 2017/2018 annual report and a report on unauthorised expenditure were also noted by the council.

The mid-term report details that the municipality has a vacancy rate of 10.5% against a target of 5%.

It says there are 6,859 households in Nelson Mandela Bay that are still using the bucket toilet system.

It had hoped to slash the number to 3,500 by December.

This is largely due to residents refusing to give their buy-in.

It also aimed to have 5,000 new water connections meeting the minimum standards. Instead, it reached only 613 households.

The report lists the reason for the under-performance as being due to delays experienced in surveying information on the billing system which would link the meters to the billing system.

Its overall performance for the six-month period was 58%.

Other areas where the municipality battled include:

● It installed 115 street lights in new areas against a target of 150;

● It did not instal any stormwater drains after it planned to instal 100 meters; and

● It managed to maintain only 83% of its intended 100% maintenance percentage. But it was not all bad news. The municipality exceeded its target for new sewer connections, installing 613 against a target of 500.

The city listed the turnaround time for registering title deeds from 2,500 days to 2,198 days as an achievement.

Opposition members who had prepared to air their views on the mid-term performance and the AG’s report were left confused and disappointed on Thursday when the report was merely noted while DA members were banging their hands on the tables.

It followed a 40-minute debate around whether or not DA councillors Trevor Louw and Neville Higgins were legally meant to be sitting in the chamber as councillors.

The DA warned that the presence of the two councillors put the city at risk as the meeting was meant to deal with matters of compliance.

Stand-in acting municipal manager Mbuzeli Nogqala said the manner in which the report was tabled was above board.

“The two reports were noted and everything is fine, everything is OK,” Nogqala said.

“This was just for compliance – to allow for other processes to continue, council must note this report.”

The annual report and auditor-general’s report will be interrogated in the municipal public accounts committee, which will make recommendations and present an action plan to the council.