Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning:
- What [a] are the reasons for the recent wave of service delivery protest in Mossel Bay and [b] actions did the municipality take to address concerns raised by the community;
- Whether he or his Department are taking additional steps to address the concerns; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
- The Municipality responded as follows in relation to question 1[a] and [b]:
The incident which apparently sparked the riots was a notice issued to approximately 300 informal households to remove illegal electricity connections or face prosecution. Several other issues, ranging from housing, the availability of land for agricultural purposes, the enlarging of a taxi rank that was built in consultation with the Taxi Association and debt collection and associated debt control measures, were listed in subsequent discussions with the leaders of the protest action.
Shortly before the outbreak of the violence the Municipality approved a tender for the electrification of 350 informal houses. In March 2014, the Municipality also applied to the Department of Energy for an additional
R10 million for electrification projects, including the electrification of more informal houses. However, many informal houses do not qualify for electrification in terms of the Department of Energy’s policy for the electrification of informal settlements as they are either situated on flood-prone land, within registered servitudes, on private property or under high-voltage power lines or a combination of these. Illegal electricity connections are of major concern to the Municipality as they pose a danger to the residents, are in contravention of the Occupational Health and Safety Act and against the By-Law of the Municipality.
Another issue raised was that toilets are too far from informal houses. This relates to 441 prefabricated structures, each with a flush toilet, tap and wash basin and serving five houses that were built in terms of the Access to Basic Services programme. The position of each structure was based on its proximity to the existing sewer network as well as the suitability of the terrain in terms of the gradient, erosion, and etcetera.
The inclusion of taps and wash basins was not a requirement in terms of the ABS project and they were added by the Mossel Bay Municipality at its own cost. Nearly half of the units were rendered useless due to vandalism within a few months after completion.
Formal housing remains an issue due to a lack of funding but the Municipality has in the past financial year completed 440 new houses, while another 220 are due for completion by March 2015. The Municipality also serviced another 400 sites in the 2013/14 financial year, with 250 more due to be completed by March 2015.
The Municipality has furthermore started with the expansion of its electricity bulk supply infrastructure at a cost of R7,1 million from own funding.
The Municipality has had several meetings, the most recent Monday,
8 September 2014 with the leaders of the protest action since the violence broke out unexpectedly on Sunday, 11 August 2014.
- Whilst the DLG plays an active monitoring role in terms of the provision of basic services, it cannot overstep the institutional integrity of local government. Furthermore, the cause of the protest action falls outside the scope of the DLG, which limits the role to be played by the Department. For instance, the National Department of Energy is responsible for electricity tariffs, the Department of Water Affairs is responsible for water and the Department of Human Settlements is responsible for housing. Accordingly, the DLG will fulfil its IGR mandate through facilitating engagements between the national, provincial and local government.
The DLG also fulfils the following functions regarding municipal infrastructure services:
• Ensures the alignment of the Housing Pipeline through its Infrastructure & Growth Planning Process;
• Manages/monitors the Municipal Infrastructure Grant [MIG] ensuring the roll out of the necessary bulk services to the poor which includes the MIG Project Appraisal Process and assistance with the Detail Project Implementation Plans [DPIPs];
• Plays an active role in assisting and assessing the municipalities’ Integrated Development Plans [IDPs] and LGMTEC process;
• Developing Electrical Master Plans of all municipalities which include renewable energy technology.
