NRF Background

1. The NRF Presentation to Municipal Public Accounts Committee (mPAC) of the Ndlambe Municipality 14th March 2018

2. NRF Background The NRF is a non-political organization which doe not align itself to any political party or movement. The objects of the NRF are: • To protect and promote the common interests of ratepayers and residents, who are members of voluntary associations, regarding the activities of all levels of government including local, provincial and national government. • To make representations including the lodging of objections and appeals to the Ndlambe Municipality, and any other relevant Government authority. • Membership of the NRF shall be open to any voluntary association representing individual ratepayers and residents located within the area of operations of the NRF. • Each Association has its own constitution. • Present constituents, represented by the chairpersons of the individual Associations on the NRF are:- Port Alfred Ratepayers Association: Kenton-on-Sea Ratepayers Association: Bushman’s Rate payers Association: Boknes Ratepayers Association: Cannon Rocks Ratepayers Association: & Kleinemonde Ratepayers Association

3. THE NRF HIGHLIGHTED ISSUED 4 CHALLANGES TO THE NDLAMBE MUNICIPALITY at the MPAC presentation dated 16th March 2016 Where the NRF would like to see improvements during 2017 & 2018 FY 1. Communication – Prompt reply or verbal feedback to all correspondence. 2. Water – Plans on how the bulk water supply requirements and water quality problems will be addressed. 3. Road maintenance – Measurable increase in the roads being maintained. 4. Local Economic Development – An Indaba to be held with all stakeholders (including organised Business, Farmer’s Associations, Tourism ) to formulate a Blue print on the way forward to achieve viable sustainable economic development in Ndlambe to develop job creation.

4. Communication – no real improvement • Although communication has improved there are numerous areas where letters to the Directors or Municipal Manger are best at times acknowledged but very rarely responded to. The NRF by Monday 12th still had not received an official notice of this of this mPAC meeting. • According to Section 5 (1) (b) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act (No. 32 of 2000) members of the local community have a right “to prompt responses to their written and oral communications, including complaints, to the municipal council and or to another political structure or an office bearer or the administration of the municipality.” Ndlambe’s Mayor, MM and all Directors are still guilty of non-compliance of the above regulation. • From the above it appears that Ndlambe does not take ratepayers or residents seriously- they are just ignored.

5. Communication continued • Scheduling of meetings with virtually no notice is still an ongoing problem. • Minutes only being distributed the day before the meeting. • Changing meeting dates with minimum notice is a common practise. • All relevant Documents are not posted onto the Ndlambe website.

6. Water - no improvement There is no clarity or plan on the future of Ndlambe’s future water supply – what has happened to the billion rand Sandile dam scheme? Reported in 2014_2015 and 2015/2016 (all cut and paste). Potable, treated water is piped to all formal urban communities within Ndlambe, and is available to the vast majority of households. However, some of the Bathurst and Trappe's Valley communities still rely on rainwater and private boreholes. No improvement. What has been done since 2014 to address this? There is never any report back to the Rate Payers or the Press on the progress of Amatola Water’s ability to complete the “quick wins project” or their inability to complete their tasks. South Africa is “dry country” and water is going to be critical for any meaningful future development and unless long term plans are made we will be like Cape Town – facing zero water in our taps! In the AG report for 16/17 it states Ndlambe lost 12 million Rand due to faulty meters and incorrect meter reading. If a person can not read a meter get some one who can do it properly. Fix the meters if we are losing so much revenue!

7. Water - comments in the Annual Report 2016/17 COMMENT ON WATER AND SANITATION SERVICES PERFORMANCE OVERALL This section in the annual report is a cut and paste from 2014/2015 annual report. Comparing the two reports 2014/2015 and 2016/ 2017 improvements on the following need to be addressed is identical in both reports:- Insufficient supply Aged infrastructure Poor quality of low cost house plumbing Source quality of water

8. Road Maintenance Roads - Paving is ongoing and appears to be successful. It has been noticed that the contractors never clear the site when they have finished the job. Maintenance - It is essential to keep weeds and grass from growing between the pavers – this is not being done. Potholes – It appears that the potholes are winning the battle as there seem to be more potholes developing than the pothole gangs can fix. Productivity amongst the pothole workers appears to be very low as most employees are just standing around observing whilst one or two actually work. Slurry sealing appears to be the best solution and those roads that have been sealed are holding up well. The Municipality should report progress on a monthly basis - pot holes filled, meters of paving and meters sealed with slurry. In the 2016/17 Annual Report items are just a cut and paste- mostly from the 2014/2015 annual report To keep on repeating Stewart Scott’s 2004 road management report and figures and amounts for road maintenance service serves no purpose – it is way out of date. There is clearly no plan to address the road maintenance problem.

9. Local Economic Development As far as the NRF is concerned we are not aware of any blue print or Indaba as requested was done during the 2016/17 period PREVIUOS COMMENT ON FARMING: Previous Annual Reports LED’s are all cut and paste. Even from 2014/2015, 2015/2016 Ndlambe Municipality has a huge scope to increase and intensify cattle farming and goat farming as key focal farming enterprises to emerging farmers and commercial farmers. This has been repeated since the 2014/2015 annual report, what has been done to develop farming? Has Eastern Cape Farmers Union been approached to assist ? PREVIUOS COMMENT ON LOCAL JOB OPPORTUNITIES: Live stock farming Again a cut and paste from the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 and again in 2016/2017 Annual Report. However, beef cattle farming in the Ndlambe Municipal area have great potential that needs to be developed. Any interventions done should seek to change the picture in favour of black farmers be it those farming in commonages or in land reform farms. There is a huge need to commercialise livestock farming in Commonages. If this is done there is an opportunity to create community wealth and more jobs. What was done since 2014’s report to develop livestock farming?

10. Annual Report 2016/17 The annual report every year is a carbon of the previous years report that is basically a cut and paste version with only dates, tables and minor items changed. For example the MM executive summary is exactly the same as the previous year with only dates and numbers changed!

11. Ndlambe 17/18 Budget Executive Summary by Municipal Manager Pages 5 and 6 summaries do not add up:-

12. Adjustment Budget 2017/18 The adjustment budget appears just to be a cut and paste job with very little thought going into the wording or to have realistic adjustments. Ndlambe agreed during the compilation of the 2017/18 to cut back on the excessive overtime and casuals! These items have obviously gone over budget and are now given excessive increases in the adjustment budget! The items where budgets have been reduced to cater for the overspending on items like overtime should be clearly documented – they are not. There are numerous examples of cutting and pasting in the 2017/18 adjustment budget. When drawing up a budget it is a well known fact that there is an influx of visitors during the holiday season yet the Municipality do not budget for this and then they use an influx of visitors as an excuse for adjusting the budget “Due to the influx of visitors and challenges experienced with EPWP Working for the Coal Implementer additional man hours/casuals were necessary!”

13. Adjustment Budget 2017/18 Where did the money come from to increase the casuals and overtime in the adjustment budget? Numerous items in the budget were just arbitrarily reduced which leads to the conclusion that there was over budgeting or just poor budgeting. An example is pump maintenance - the Rate Payers with the continuous smell of sewerage and sewerage spills would think that this is the last area to adjust is the pump maintenance budget! Reasons are all identical. “There was minimum maintenance done on the pump that what was anticipated ”.

14. AG Report 2016/17 This report is extremely damming and the new Adjustment Budget 17/18 is so full of errors it will definitely lead to another qualified audit for 2017/18. AG Comments:- Irregular expenditure - Due to the lack of systems, it was impracticable to determine the full extent of irregular expenditure. Consequently, the AG was unable to determine the adjustments to the current year’s irregular expenditure amounting to R386.6 million. Electricity losses of R 6.8 million due to meter reading inefficiencies and faulty underground infrastructure. Water losses of R 12.0 million due to meter reading inefficiencies and faulty meters. Unauthorised expenditure R 97.6 million, what was this spent on? Unauthorised expenditure was not investigated to determine if any person was liable for the expenditure as required. Irregular expenditure was not investigated to determine if any person was liable for the expenditure as required. Losses resulting from irregular expenditure were not recovered from the liable person as required. Fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred were not investigated to determine if any person was liable for the expenditure.

15. AG Report 2016/17 continued Procurement and Contract Management:- Quotations accepted from prospective providers who were not on the accredited list. Goods and service in excess of R 200 000 were procured without competitive bids. Some of the contracts were awarded to bidders that did not score the highest points in the evaluation process. Some of the construction contracts were awarded to contractors that did not qualify for the contract. Failure by municipal employees to disclose that close family had interests in the contracts awarded. Awards were made to providers who were in service of other state institutions or whose directors were in the service of other state institutions. All above are in contravention of the SCM regulations and MFMA. Should these persons not be identified disciplined and criminally charged?

16. Municipality approving of irresponsible expenditure Cars A R 750 000 Mayor’s car – will this improve service delivery or anything else in Ndlambe? Laptops R 200 000 for councillors ostensibly to reduce paper yet no councillor has been seen with their laptop at a council meeting, the voluminous amounts of paper seems never to end. Productivity There appears to be a disconnect between Management and the needs of the of Municipal labour force to be productive, to maintain their equipment and to enable them to do their allocated tasks efficiently properly. Six workers on a site with one spade and one pick is a common sight in Ndlambe. Equipment Ndlambe rather needs skips, weed eaters lawn mowers and a secure functional workshop rather than laptops projectors conference rooms etc. Security More security and fencing at the Ndlambe sewerage plant and workshop would be cheaper than these assets continuously being burgled and vandalised.

17. Thank You – any questions ?