Residents of the informal settlement in Thornhill will soon have access to ablution facilities.
The last of three container ablution facilities – each consisting of both male and female amenities – were delivered in Thornhill earlier today.
It will now be connected to the existing sewerage infrastructure – benefitting local residents.
The DA led Kouga Municipality continues to improve the lives of all residents within the Municipality.
Kouga Municipality, in conjunction with the Kouga Business Forum (KBF), has embarked on a much-needed water drive to aid the drought-stricken communities of Hankey and Patensie.
“The Kouga municipal region is in the grips of a devastating drought,” said Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks. “The towns of Hankey and Patensie have been hit the hardest as they depend completely on the Kouga Dam for potable water.”
The level of the dam dropped to below 5% this week, with no significant rainfall predicted for the catchment area over the next few months.
“The municipality and KBF have, therefore, established various drop-off points across the region for 5-liter bottled water,” said Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks. “We would like to encourage all residents and businesses to donate a bottle of water.
“Even just a single bottle of water will help the communities of Hankey and Patensie delay Day Zero – the day when they will run out of water.”
According to Hendricks, Day Zero is set for June 1, should no significant rain fall in the catchment area very soon.
KBF Administrator, Leilani Coetsee, said, “Water is arguably the most important commodity on the planet at the moment. As important as any metal and energy are to the planet, none of them matter without water.
“Every agricultural crop that feeds the planet needs water to grow. The energy companies cannot generate fuel without it. In fact, no living being can survive without water.
“We, as the Kouga Business Forum, are pleading to every business owner to not waste water as we are in a severe drought-stricken area. Educate your employees in ways to use water sparingly. The KBF also request that each business try and donate water to this worthy cause.”
In a bid to delay Day Zero for the area, water rationing has been in effect in the towns since August 2018.
“The water is shut down for six hours per day, from 09:00 to 15:00,” said Hendricks. “Residents are encouraged to make use of water from the tanks that have been installed in the area to relieve the pressure on the dam.
“The aim is to make the supply last for as long as possible.”
According to Hendricks, he knows that it has not been easy for the affected communities. “There are households in Hankey and Patensie where very little to no tap water has been available, even during the advertised hours, because the water is extracted from the pipes faster than they can fill up when the supply is turned on.
“The usage in these towns has also been above the quota, which contributes to the shortages as the Gamtoos Irrigation Board turns off the supply once the quota has been reached.”
He urged all residents and businesses to use water only when absolutely necessary, and to use as little as possible when they do. “Please limit your usage to 50l per person per day,” he said.
The drop-off points for water are at Jeffreys Bay SuperSpar, Mentors Plaza in Jeffreys Bay, Fountains Mall in Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp SuperSpar, Village Square SuperSpar in St Francis Bay, Hankey Spar and Tolbos in Patensie.
For more information or to be part of the campaign, contact the Kouga Business Forum Administrator, Leilani Coetsee, at 084 681 3702.
For monetary donations – whether it is big or small, every drop counts – contact the Kouga Mayor’s Office at 067 108 5895 or send an email to pamayor@kouga.gov.za.
A public meeting will be held in Hankey this October to give the community a progress report on the local housing project.
The meeting will take place at the Vusumzi Landu Community Hall at 19:00 on Monday, October 7.
Speaker of the DA led Kouga Municipality, Hattingh Bornman, said a critical matter that will be discussed, is the relocation of households to the transit site.
“The bush-clearing has been completed and the sub-division, popularly known as ‘pegging’, of the site where the houses will be built, is under way,” he said.
“Once the sub-division has been completed, the relocation will commence.
“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the details of the relocation, so that we can all work together to minimise the inconvenience to those affected by the move.”
He said once the relocation had been completed, Eskom would start electrifying the plots that will form part of the Hankey housing project, as well as the transit site.
“It was a long and tough negotiation to get a commitment from Eskom to electrify these areas. We look forward to bringing electricity to these households and improving their quality of life,” he said.
The Democratic Alliance has unlocked a number of housing projects in Kouga since taking over the Municipality in 2016.
391 Houses have been built in Humansdorp and construction has started on another 1720 houses in Jeffreys Bay.
No houses had been built since 2007 in the Municipality with service delivery also being severely affected under ANC government in Kouga.
Grass-cutting teams have been out and about at Yellow woods in Hankey to spruce up the popular picnic and braai spot which was seriously neglected over the past two decades.
The fencing at the entrance gate was also recently repaired while funding has been set aside in the new municipal budget for 2019/20 to repair the braai stands and ablution facilities.
The DA led Kouga Municipality has been hard at work fixing up public facilities all over Kouga.
Facilities like Yellow Woods, the Aston Bay Hall and public bathrooms have all been receiving attention since 2016 when the DA won Kouga.
Kouga Municipality is another step closer to achieving water security for the communities of Hankey and Patensie.
“Groundwater exploration in and around the towns has finally borne fruit and the municipality will soon start equipping and connecting boreholes to the water treatment works,” Executive Mayor Horatio Hendericks said.
“Our hope is that the combined yield will be sufficient to stop water rationing, a measure we were forced to take when the national Department of Water and Sanitation cut the quota from the Kouga Dam to both towns.
“While the quota is under review, early indications are that the national Department will not be increasing the allocation.
“This means alternative sources must be secured and developed to augment the supply to the towns and bring an end to watershedding.”
The municipality last year secured more than R41-million from the Provincial Disaster Relief Fund for groundwater and borehole development at Patensie and Hankey.
“Three boreholes were drilled in Patensie. Two boreholes delivered good blow yields of 20l/s and 40l/s while the salinity of the water is also at an acceptable level,” Hendricks said.
“Pump tests are currently under way and we are awaiting the detailed data analysis.
“The next step will be equipping and connecting the boreholes to the Patensie water treatment works, situated about 1,3km from the site.”
According to the Mayor, finding viable groundwater sources at Hankey had proven far more challenging.
“Our exploration team initially focused their efforts on municipal land to the south of Hankey. Four exploration boreholes and one production hole were drilled, but the results were disappointing.
“They then moved their focus to the neighbouring property, which is privately owned. A total of 17 exploration and five production holes were drilled, with the latter delivering promising blow yields of up to 21l/s,” he said.
“As with Patensie, the results of the pump tests are being awaited. The next step will be equipping and connecting the boreholes to the Hankey water treatment works, situated about 12km away from the site.”
He said the municipality’s legal team was drafting an agreement between the municipality and land-owner for the drilling of boreholes for municipal use while servitude rights were also being formalised.
“We are very pleased that we will soon be in a position to break Hankey and Patensie’s dependency on the Kouga Dam.
“Despite the dam being situated in Kouga, it belongs to the national Department of Water and Sanitation and is also used to provide water to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro,” he said.
“As a result, it is not managed in the best interest of the Hankey and Patensie communities. This has led to an intolerable situation, both for Kouga Municipality and the communities we are sworn to serve.”
In a move set to change the face of refuse collection Kouga Municipality has started distributing wheelie bins to households for free.
Executive Mayor Horatio Hendricks said the first 3 600 wheelie bins were being distributed to homes at Hankey and Patensie this week, with procurement for a further 2 000 in the current financial year underway.
“Our aim is to replace black bags with wheelie bins across the region over the next five years,” he said.
“The advantages are numerous. Not only will it help us cut down on plastic waste, but it will also boost efforts by the municipality and communities to keep Kouga clean.”
Community Services Portfolio Councillor Daniel Benson said wheelie bins had proven to be a far more hygienic and safer way of storing and collecting refuse.
“One of the big challenges our refuse crews face on a daily basis is the tearing open of black bags by rats, stray dogs and goats. The wheelie bins will help to minimise this and create a cleaner and healthier environment for our residents,” Benson said.
“The bins will also help to reduce injuries to our refuse collectors. The black bags often break when loaded into the compactor trucks and staff can then be injured by sharp items or broken glass.”
The Mayor said the bins were being delivered directly to households at Hankey and Patensie this week.
“Each bin has a unique serial number and the home-owner must sign for it on receipt. We do, however, encourage residents to paint their street number on the bin as well, so that it is easily identifiable.”
Hendricks said the bins would be emptied on the same day as refuse collection is currently done.
“We will be emptying the wheelie bins at Hankey and Patensie for the first time on May 8.
“Residents are asked to ensure that their bins are on the pavement by 07:30 on the day and then to return them to their properties as quickly as possible once they have been emptied.”
He cautioned that only refuse in the bin would be collected and that households should take care not to place heavy items in the bins, making it impossible to move or lift them.
“There are guidelines as to what residents may and may not dispose of in the wheelie bins. Flyers in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa are being distributed along with the bins to guide residents on their use.”
The Eastern Cape provincial premier candidate of the DA, Nqaba Bhanga led a march in Kruisfontein and Arcadia in Humansdorp yesterday that was attended by close to 1000 people.
Bhanga was joined by the Kouga Member of Parliament Malcolm Figg, Kouga Mayor Horatio Hendricks, together with Mayoral Committee Councillors and Ward Councillors of the DA.
They were joined by close to 1000 people as the march wound its way from Kruisfontein to the Civic Hall in Arcadia in Humansdorp.
At the Civic, Mayor Hendricks made it clear that the ANC will never ever again rule in Kouga.
“When we took over in 2016, it was said that it would take ten years to turn service delivery around but we have made huge progress in only two years.
We have improved things that the ANC could not pull off in 15 years,” said Hendricks to the approval of the residents who attended the meeting.
The Provincial leader of the DA, Nqaba Bhanga then said that the DA wants a Police Force that is honest and professional and will protect the community that they serve.
“The Police need people who want to be Police and not people who are just looking for a job,”said Bhanga.
“The Police need to fight corruption and to keep us safe and protect our communities from criminals and gangsters who are terrorizing even the people of Kruisfontein and Arcadia,” added Bhanga.
The National and Provincial elections take place on 8 May 2019.
MORE than 700 households at Hankey are in high spirits following confirmation that the building of RDP houses in the area is back on track.
Kouga Speaker Hattingh Bornman said work on the long-awaited Hankey housing project, which will cater for 738 households, is set to start this year.
The site where the houses will be built, includes the land where the informal settlement Stofwolk is situated and a strip running from Rosedale around the cemetery towards Centerton.
“The layout plan was recently approved by Council and a land surveyor has been appointed to peg the site,” he said.
“A total of 200 RDP houses will be built where Stofwolk currently stands. The remaining 538 houses will be built along the strip.”
He said a transfer site, with services, will be developed on the open land towards Rosedale, so as to accommodate Stofwolk residents while the site is being pegged and internal services are being installed.
“We expect the installation of internal services to start this year, as the East Cape Department of Human Settlements has budgeted for the project in the 2019/2020 financial year,” he said.
“We will be meeting with the Department biweekly, including a joint site visit next week, so that any potential hold-ups are identified and dealt with swiftly.
“Hankey residents have been waiting for this project to get off the ground for many years and we do not want there to be any further delays.”
He said the provisional beneficiary list could be viewed at the Ward Councillor’s Office and the Vusumzi Landu Hall.
“We would like to caution residents that this is not the final list. The names on the list are those whose names appear on the National Housing Needs Register.
“These names will now be prescreened by the provincial Human Settlements Department. Once this process has been completed, the list of those applicants who qualify, will be submitted to the Kouga Council for approval.
“Once that list has been approved, each prospective beneficiary will have to complete a subsidy application form for final vetting and approval by the provincial Department,” he explained.
He invited Hankey residents whose names do not appear on the provisional list but who did submit their names, to visit the municipality’s Human Settlements section so that this could be corrected.
“We are very pleased that we have been able to get the project back on track and want to see everything happening in a fair and transparent manner. We look forward to working closing with the Hankey community to ensure the success of the project.”
The Sarah Baartman Remembrance Centre in Hankey in the Eastern Cape remains unfinished, four years down the line.
DA MP Malcolm Figg said that poor planning and even worse workmanship contributed to the people of Hankey not benefitting from this R165m government project.
He said during an oversight visit to the construction site on Wednesday that the heritage centre is being built by the national Department of Public Works on behalf of the national Department of Arts and Culture.
“The centre aims to boost the local economy, create jobs and honour the late Sarah Baartman,” he said.
Construction on the project started in April 2014 and has now been delayed by more than two years.
“The completion date of October 2016 was missed and the new promised completion date of March 2019, is clearly a pipe dream,” Figg said.
He was accompanied on the visit by MP, Phumzile van Damme and MPL’s Bobby Stevenson and Andrew Whitfield. They were joined by the Mayor of Kouga, Horatio Hendricks and his Mayco members Brian Ndhlulu, Frances Baxter, Brenton Williams and Speaker of Council Hattingh Borman.
The valve of the Weston reservoir at Hankey was smashed by vandals during Wednesday night.
This means the Weston community will now not have tap water at all, even during those hours when the water would have been turned on.
The municipality is delivering water with tankers and bottled water will also be available from the community hall.
The Kouga Dam which supplies water to the towns of Hankey and Patensie is below 7 % of capacity, leaving the Kouga Municipality no choice but to ration water.
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