New Letsemeng boss eyes turnaround

Municipality to recruit key staff to improve service delivery

Letsemeng Local Municipality says it will soon embark on a major drive to recruit essential skills key to improving service delivery and implement numerous expansion programmes.

Newly-appointed municipal manager Aaron Mnguni told The Weekly on Wednesday that the local authority had struggled in recent years to offer adequate service delivery to residents due to lack of skilled staff to implement different programmes.

He said his priority task in his new position was to ensure that he hired qualified staff to help him roll out programmes aimed at improving service delivery in the municipality.

“There is a serious shortage of skilled technical staff such as electricians, engineers and technicians,” Mnguni, a former member of the national assembly, said in a telephone interview.

With a population of about 40 000 people, Letsemeng municipality is situated about 120km west of Bloemfontein.

It has six main towns, namely, Koffiefontein – the administrative seat – as well as Petrusburg, Jacobsdal, Jagersfontein, Luckhoff and Oppermansgronde.

Mnguni said: “Quite a number of projects could not be implemented because the municipality did not have qualified staff to do the work . . . the limited staff had to do all the work.

“As I speak to you we have water shortages in Petrusburg, Jacobsdal and Oppermansgronde.

“The water pumps have been breaking down regularly because we have a shortage of qualified electricians to maintain them.”

He added: “The population has also grown over the years but this has not been commensurate with the expansion of the infrastructure.

“The other factor is that water from Debrug Dam which is supplied via a canal is diverted by some farmers before it reaches our reservoirs, hence the shortages.”

Mnguni said revenue collection in the municipality was also very poor as most people were unemployed and could therefore not pay for basic services such as water, electricity and other rates and taxes.

“Unemployment is very high here and we are implementing the Community Works Programme (CWP) and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in order to help people earn a living and look after their families,” he said.

About 1 000 people are currently employed under the CWP, while 46 are on the EPWP.

Mnguni said he expected more people to be employed under the programmes as soon as more skilled staff was hired to direct the projects and more funds made available.

Statistics South Africa estimates that about a quarter of the people in the municipality are not employed.

Meanwhile, Mnguni said the local authority was looking to eradicate over the next 24 months bucket toilets still in use in about 1 000 homes in the municipality.

But he lamented the continued growth of informal settlements he said was holding back efforts to improve sanitation in the municipality.

“We currently have about 1 000 bucket toilets which we hope to eradicate over the next two years,” Mnguni said.

“The continued emergence of informal settlements has however made this bucket eradication programme a challenge in the past because even when people settle illegally, they expect to be supplied with water and sanitation facilities.

“We hope to work around this by limiting the growth of these settlements.”