The fate of 14 employees, and by extension their families, and 160 animals at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) depends on whether or not the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will pay about R160,000 it owes the organisation.
We reported this week that the SPCA in Uitenhage, which is the only one serving the Bay region, was running out of funds. The situation has become so dire that it could not pay staff their weekly wages and it is fast running out of resources to feed the many animals it houses.
SPCA district chairperson Deirdre Swift said she was forced to close the pound for stray animals, run on behalf of the municipality, because the money had not been forthcoming since July.
“Without public support, the SPCA will cease to exist. If they [municipality] don’t pay us we have limited resources,” she said.
“The bottom line is that if we can’t get money in, those animals that are on site are going to have to be put down. The public will be furious if healthy animals are put down simply because we can’t afford to feed them,” Swift said.
Should it come to that, it would cause a massive outcry in the Bay, and justifiably so.
The municipality explained its contract with the SPCA had lapsed in June and it could thus not pay the entity without a valid contract in place. That is a given.
But four months later, it cannot explain when the matter will be resolved.
The whole saga is a symptom of a bigger problem in the municipality – one this newspaper has reported on several times before – that the municipality does not have the proper mechanisms and systems in place to ensure efficient contract management.
In many instances, officials wait until a contract is on the verge of expiring – or in this case already expired – before starting the lengthy and cumbersome tender process. In more cases than not, it stalls service delivery.
The city must ensure it pays the SPCA what is due. It not only affects the staff and animals at the Uitenhage site, but the rest of the city because without an operational pound, stray animals will be allowed to roam on our busy streets, posing a major danger to motorists.