By Thys Khiba – The City of Matlosana in the North West province has been accused of failing to deliver services and repair water and sewage leaks, electricity outages, road maintenance, and refuse removal due to a dysfunctional vehicle fleet.
This is also linked to general mismanagement and poor service maintenance systems.
It is alleged that Matlosana has a dysfunctional fleet management system where 262 vehicles out of a fleet of 540 are currently out of service.
It is further alleged that the municipal vehicle workshop is also dysfunctional with only 152 of the municipality’s 262 vehicles reported to be at the municipal workshop for repairs. This means that 110 vehicles have been outsourced for repairs.
This has led the municipality to frequently rent additional vehicles to respond to service delivery requirements.
It has been reported that the renting of vehicles and the contracting of service providers to deliver services of repair result in additional financial costs.
The opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, Johan Bornman has indicated that the DA in the municipality will write a letter to the Executive Mayor James Tsolela and Municipal Manager Lesego Seametso about their oversight report.
“In some instances, municipal vehicles are being held back due to delays in the issuance of certificates of roadworthiness, vehicle registration, and licensing,” Bornman said.
The DA will request that Tsolela and Seametso to table an urgent plan to address the alleged dysfunctionality in the municipal fleet and vehicle repair workshops.
“Bringing vehicles back into service must be a priority. The residents of Matlosana cannot survive another term of ANC’s failed governance.
“Residents have an opportunity to vote DA in the next year’s elections so that we can begin to rebuild what the ANC has destroyed,” said Bornman.
Earlier this month, on 17 June, the municipality Communication and Marketing indicated on social media – Facebook platform that the municipal has apologised for the inconvenience linked the refuse removal services.
“The City of Matlosana hereby give notice that the refuse removal services will resume effectively as per schedule, from Monday, 19 June 2023. Community is advised to take out the rubbish bins or black plastics for collection from Monday,” read City of Matlosana Municipal Updates.
Meanwhile, the municipality failed to honour its agreement with power utility Eskom to pay down its debt – an agreement that was made an order of the court in 2021. At that time, the council owed Eskom about R500m.
This month, Eskom has taken a decision against the municipality over a unpaid debt of R1.2bn, the power utility attaching the municipal’s bank accounts.
The municipality has tried to approach the courts on an urgent basis, seeking an order to set aside or uplift the attachment on its bank accounts. In 2022, July, judgement on the application dismissed the municipality’s application. An application for leave to appeal was also dismissed in February 2023.
At the time of publishing this article, Central News could not get a comment from the mayoral spokesperson Nick Mapheelle. This is after we have sent a media enquiry to Mapheelle on Wednesday.
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