kougademocrat

Kouga executive mayor, Elsa van Lingen, said the establishment of a desalination plant is the best way to achieve water security for the Kouga area.

Delivering her State of the Municipality Address on Wednesday, Van Lingen said that a delegation from Kouga recently visited Israel to learn more about desalination from the world’s leaders in this field.

She said the process to appoint a professional services provider to assist with the implementation has been initiated.

Van Lingen said that long-term water security will also be the focus of the Kouga Municipality’s climate change partnership with Ilsfeld Municipality in Germany.

“A year ago the dams in the Algoa Water Supply System – from which both Kouga and our neighbours, Nelson Mandela Bay, draw water – were just more than half full at 50,2%. That figure has since dropped to 25.6%,” she said.

Van Lingen said “of particular concern to us is the Kouga Dam, which is the only water supply to the towns of Hankey and Patensie. A year ago the dam level stood at 36%; now it stands at just over 10%.”

“The outlook for the Churchill and Impofu Dams – which supply water to Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, St Francis Bay and Cape St Francis- is also bleak, with the level of the Churchill Dam dropping from 31% in February last year to 18% in February this year and the Impofu from 72.4% to 41.3%,” she said.

“In short, the water security of our communities is under serious threat,” Van Lingen said.

Meanwhile, Meanwhile, the Kouga mayor said that one of the big economic shocks for them this past year was the news that the proposed nuclear development at Thyspunt would not be happening soon, if ever.

Van Lingen said while the people of Kouga have been divided over the issue of years, she said there’s no doubt that news came as a blow to many job seekers, entrepreneurs, SMMEs, co-ops and businesses, who believed that Thyspunt would bring a much-needed economic boost to the region.

However, the Mayor said there’s far more to the Kouga area than just Thyspunt.

Van Lingen said there’s tremendous room for growth in many of sectors – including tourism, Agri-processing, and the Ocean Economy.

She said the Kouga Council will endeavour to unlock the full economic potential of the area.

The DA led Kouga Council approved the appointment of two municipal directors at a special meeting in Jeffreys Bay last week.

Executive Mayor Elza van Lingen said Council had resolved to renew the contract of Victor Felton as Director: Infrastructure, Planning and Development while Krishen Moodley received the nod as Director: Administration, Monitoring, Evaluation and Special Projects.

Felton took up his position on 1 August while Moodley’s contract is being finalised. Both appointments will also be submitted to East Cape Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Fikile Xasa, for concurrence.

The Mayor said the Council had resolved that the position of Director: Social Services Director would be re-advertised.

She added that the filling of the position of Director: Local Economic Development, Tourism and Creative Industries had been put on hold pending a review of the municipality’s portfolio and directorate structures.

“The manner in which directorates are structured, influences how effectively employees can perform their duties. Over the past year we have discovered that the existing structure does little to support interdepartmental cooperation and optimal performance. We are, therefore, reviewing the structure before finalising the appointment of further directors,” she said.

The five-year contracts of Kouga’s former Director: Administration, Monitoring, Evaluation and Special Projects, Thobeka Tom, Director: Local Economic Development, Tourism and Creative Industries, Carleen Arends, and Director: Social Services, Japie Jansen, came to an end on 31 July 2017.

New Municipal Manager Charl du Plessis took up his position in June 2017 while the contract of CFO Selwyn Thys runs till 2022.

Once again Kouga has been packed with holidaymakers during the festive season and it was pleasing to note that as a Municipality, we achieved our goals that were set out in the 100 day plan.

The peak season was always going to be critical when we took over in August 2016 and the new Mayoral Committee worked closely with the officials to make sure Kouga Municipality was as prepared as possible for the influx of people.

We identified shortcomings in equipment (mainly vehicles) and manpower and moved to address these shortcomings by hiring additional vehicles and hiring seasonal staff to make sure we delivered services during the season.

Thousands of potholes were repaired in the buildup to December, roads signage was painted, light bulbs were replaced and public open spaces were neatened up during October and November.

All the hard work of our officials paid off, and we have received numerous compliments from our holidaymakers who said that they could see a difference, when compared to 2015.

One holidaymaker, who has been coming to the Jeffreys Bay Caravan Park for the past 35 years, remarked that the Park has never been this secure (we employed 6 security guards) and hasnt been this clean in many years.

Of course there were going to be problems and our game plan was to react quickly when a problem occurred and to sort it out timeously.

Water pipes did burst, there were sewage spills and we did lose power from time to time.

However, our staff worked extremely hard throughout the season and ensured that the Municipality delivered services that will see holidaymakers return in 2017.

I would personally like to thank each and every employee of Kouga Municipality who worked tirelessly over the festive season for all their efforts and commitment.

Together we will take the Kouga Municipality to greater heights than ever before.

Regards

Elza

Local service providers wishing to do business with Kouga Municipality are urged to register on government’s new Central Supplier Database (CSD).

Kouga Executive Mayor Elza van Lingen said National Treasury had issued new regulations to streamline the manner in which government did business.

“The CSD is the most important change as far as our local businesses are concerned,” she said. “Previously, service providers only needed to be registered on the municipality’s supplier database, but now they have to be registered on the CSD as well.”

She said the new Council wanted to maximise the amount of municipal business being awarded to locals.

“We would, therefore, like to encourage our business sector, including SMMEs and entrepreneurs, to register on both the municipal database and CSD so that we can keep as much business as possible in our area.

“If you are not on both these databases, we cannot legally do business with you,” she cautioned.

The application form to register on the municipality’s database can be downloaded from the municipal website at http://www.kouga.gov.za or contact the municipality’s Supply-Chain Management Office at 042 200 2248.

For further information and to register on the Central Supplier Database go to https://eprocurement.csd.gov.za/PROD/ISS_NT/portaldefault.aspx