Growing tourism
TOURISM is one of the main economic drivers of the Kouga area. Dolphin Beach, the main beach at Jeffreys Bay, secured Blue Flag status for the 2016/17 season. We also upgraded the main beach promenade and life guard tower in partnership with local business. Council further increased its support of the JBay Winterfest, which includes the Corona Open J-Bay, the biggest international surfing event in Africa. The festival brought about 50 000 much-needed tourists to Jeffreys Bay in July 2017 and injected about R45-million into the local economy. Roads in the vicinity of the main contest areas were resealed while the capacity of the boardwalk at Super tubes, the venue of the surfing contest, will be increased in 2017/18.
The SA Junior Surfing Championships was hosted in Kouga in 2016 and will again be hosted here this year. We are negotiating with the organisers to secure a three-year commitment for the event to take place in our area.
An international endurance event, Expedition Africa, was hosted in Kouga for the first time in 2017. The event brought teams from across the world to the region. We have also been securing Kouga’s position on the open-water swimming map. In December 2016 the SA Open Water Swimming Championships, an official world champs qualifying event, was taken away from the Nelson Mandela Metro, due to water quality concerns at the North End Lake, and moved to the Marina Martinique at Jeffreys Bay.
Proposed nuclear development
KOUGA is home to Thyspunt, the preferred site for Eskom’s nuclear-build programme. Even before we came to power, it was obvious that the municipality was nowhere near ready for the impact the proposed nuclear development would have on the area should it receive the go-ahead. The new leadership met with Eskom and it was agreed that regular information-sharing and preparation meetings would be held. The Thyspunt Joint Project Steering Committee was established on 9 December 2016. Seven working streams, focusing on different potential impacts of the development, were also established on 7 April 2017.
Development plan gets the nod
THE Kouga Council held two successful rounds of IDP and budget consultation meetings during their first year in office, with good public participation in all wards. The Kouga Integrated Development Plan (IDP) is a five-year plan that sets out the needs of all 15 municipal wards. It is put together in consultation with communities and is reviewed every year. Executive Mayor Elza van Lingen said Council was grateful for the active interest that was shown by communities in putting together the new IDP or the period 2017 to 2022. “It was wonderful to meet so many of our residents and to hear what they want to see happen in their wards. “This input helped us to decide how to split the budget for 2017/18 and which projects were prioritised. “We hope to see an even larger number of residents at the public meetings when we start planning for the coming year,” she said. The Kouga IDP 2017/2022 was unanimously adopted by Council on 31 May 2017. Public meetings to review the document for the 2018/2019 year will be advertised on the municipality’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kouga news and local media.
Donkerhoek gets power
IMPROVING living conditions at informal settlements is of great importance to the Kouga Council. The municipality started with the formalisation of Donkerhoek at Humansdorp this past year. Plots were surveyed and sites allocated to community members. The main access road to the area was also upgraded. Electricity was then installed to 247 of the sites at a cost of R6-million and switched on in July 2017. A further R4-million is on the 2017/18 capital budget to electrify the remaining 116 sites at Donkerhoek, as well as sites at Ocean View. Plots were surveyed and sites allocated to community members. The main access road to the area was also upgraded. Electricity was then installed to 247 of the sites at a cost of R6-million and switched on in July 2017. A further R4-million is on the 2017/18 capital budget to electrify the remaining 116 sites at Donkerhoek, as well as sites at Ocean View.
Road improvements THE condition of Kouga’s streets and roads has been of great concern to residents and Council. While we have accelerated the repair and resealing of streets, the backlog is tremendous. We have been in regular contact with the provincial Department of Roads and Public Works, under whose jurisdiction many of the main routes fall. The Kouga Road Forum has also been established to help identify priority areas.
Waste water treatment works
THE R48-million upgrade of the Kruisfontein Waste Water Treatment Works is nearing completion. While it is a MIG-funded project, the municipality provided bridging funding from its own income so as to accelerate the project. The upgrade of the waste water treatment works at Hankey was also completed at a cost of R6-million this past year while digesters at Patensie were replaced with a waterborne system at a cost of some R25 million. Environmental authorisation for the upgrade of the St Francis Bay Waste Water Treatment Works was issued in May 2017 and the municipality has secured MIG funding of R8, 2 million to take the project forward as part of our capital programme for 2017/18.
Centre reopened
ONE of our first great service successes this past year was the re-opening of the municipality’s vehicle testing centre in April 2017. The centre had been closed for more than two years after a flash flood shut down operations. This meant that the public could no longer have their vehicles tested at the municipality but had to go to private centres. The municipality had been paid out by the insurance company but was battling to finalise the administrative processes. We saw to it that the delays were sorted out as a matter of urgency and the centre was re-opened to the public.
Uncovering and fixing old wrongs
SINCE taking over Kouga in August 2016, we have discovered that there are a number of financial claims and serious matters of non-compliance hanging over the municipality like a dark cloud.
- Old debt to Department of Transport The municipality failed to pay over drivers licence monies to the Department of Transport for several years under the two previous Councils. At the time of the 2016 election, the outstanding amount stood at about R11 million. We are paying this off in line with an arrangement made with the department.
- R46-million water bill Following the election, the new Council was shocked to find that the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro had issued Kouga with a water bill for R46 million. This was in addition to the monthly water bill. According to the Metro, Kouga had been under-billed for water usage between 2012 and 2016. The bill had been issued to Kouga in May 2016 but had not been disclosed by the previous Council. Negotiations with the Metro regarding the bill is ongoing.
Court case: 2012 St Francis Bay canal fire
A court case that the municipality is defending could potentially cost the municipality between R30 million and R40 million. The claim arises from the 2012 fire that saw scores of houses being razed to the ground in the St Francis Bay canal area.
- . R13-million bill from the Dept. of Labour
- In July 2017 the Council was confronted with another shock bill. Dating back 10 years and totalling R12,62 million, the bill was for Return of Earnings (RoEs), required for what is commonly known as “workmen’s compensation”. The municipality hadn’t submitted RoEs from 2007 to 2016. This meant that municipal employees did not have proper cover for Injury on Duty claims for almost ten years. The municipality has since come to an arrangement with the Department for workmen’s compensation to be reinstated and is negotiating paying off the outstanding amount.
- Sheriff of the Court The municipality lost various cases against aggrieved employees prior to August 2016 but failed to pay out the awards that had been made to those employees. As a result, we have had to deal with several old labour claims over the past year while the municipality also almost lost nine of its vehicles because of this failure. On 19 July the Sheriff of the Court arrived at Kouga’s workshop to attach a truck and eight bakkies in terms of an execution warrant that had been granted in favour of two aggrieved employees who had won their case against the municipality in 2015. The Labour Court had made an award to them, but this was never paid. The municipality had to pay R152 000 to avoid the vehicles being removed. This included the award money to the employees, as well as court and sheriff charges.
- Failure to pay creditors within 30 days it is a requirement that a municipality pays all its creditors within 30 days, something that was not happening in Kouga under the previous Council. In order to improve the municipality’s cash flow so that creditors can be paid within the required period, a Cost Containment Policy was adopted while revenue enhancement remains an ongoing focus.
- Unauthorised expenditure written off One of the outstanding matters inherited from the previous Council was unauthorised expenditure totalling R288 million, which had been accumulated from 2009 to 2014. The previous Council had attempted to write it off but the Auditor-General was not satisfied that a proper investigation had been conducted to determine whether anyone could be held accountable and if any of the monies were recoverable. MPAC consequently conducted a thorough investigation into the expenditure, following which Council approved the writing off of the expenditure in line with the prescripts of the MFMA.
- 8. Bloated staff structure In addition to permanent staff totalling more than 800, the municipality had more than 200 contracted workers at the time of the election. Too much of the municipal purse was going towards staff costs to carry the bloated structure. Council, therefore, had to make the difficult decision not to renew the employ of contract workers so as to make more money available for service delivery. In order to ensure that contracted work would continue, the organogram was reviewed and a number of critical vacancies identified for filling in 2017/18.
- Employment Equity Plan (EEP) The previous two Councils failed to adopt an Employment Equity Plan in accordance with Section 20 of the Employment Equity Act (No 55 of 1998). We pursued this very important legislative requirement vigorously and adopted the municipality’s first EEP in seven years on 29 June 2017.
- Dilapidated fleet one of our early discoveries after the municipal election was the shocking condition of the municipal fleet. Early reports showed that of the 220 vehicles in the fleet, only four were in a good condition and fully operation. 58 vehicles were no longer operational at all and a further 14 were on the verge of becoming redundant. A five-year fleet replacement plan is being finalised to address this serious shortcoming. Provision was made by the new Council in the 2016/17 Adjustments Budget to purchase two refuse compactor trucks and two mesh trucks. A total of R 8, 8 million was also approved for the purchase of new vehicles in the 2017/18 budget.
- RDP title deeds
MPAC has been investigating the recent handing out of title deeds at Hankey by the East Cape Department of Human Settlements. 185 title deeds were handed over without proper beneficiary verification before Council was able to put a stop to it. The handing over of title deeds will resume once the investigation has been completed and we are satisfied that the title deeds will be going to the correct beneficiaries.
12. Clamping down on corruption
An Anti-Corruption and Fraud Prevention policy was adopted to clamp down on corruption.