Nthatisi cleans and there is garbage a day later

Staff reporter

Bloemfontein – The cleaning campaign of Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality by Greg Nthatisi, the newly elected acting Executive Mayor has been received with mixed feelings depending on where you stand.

https://stepupsanews.co.za/2022/03/21/mangaung-metro-cbd-turned-into-a-legal-dumping-zone-trampling-on-human-rights/

Nthatisi who is a former MK member and MEC was elected as an acting Executive Mayor after the African National Congress (ANC) successfully interdicted the Papie Mokoena by Free State High Court.

The acting Executive Mayor has been cleaning the city together with other stakeholders and businesses but without law enforcement that it is rather as useless as (p) in psychology considering the waste and rubbish collection is non-existent as soon as the Mayor leaves the community dumps more garbage.

This noble commitment must be appreciated but it also raises serious questions about law enforcement and adherence to by-laws in the Metro because Mangaung looks like a rural Metro as every Tom, Dick, and Harry can erect a tent and sell food in the middle of the City and life goes on.

The lack of law enforcement personnel in the city has raised an alarm and we discovered instead of doing what they are paid for, they are busy providing security services to the intervention team.

It’s not the first time the city got cleaned as a local radio station in partnership with Bon Hotel and the community tried in vain to clean the city but that proved a mountain too high.

The city has cleaners but they can’t even clean the graveyards.

To get clarity, Qondile Khedama, spokesperson for Mangaung Metro explained.

“After he was installed as the Acting Executive Mayor (AEM), one of the key areas of concern Cllr. Gregory Nthatisi noted the cleanliness of the city.

He resuscitated Reclaiming the City campaign as part of the program to go back to the basics of service delivery. Some other stakeholders and businesses responded to the clarion call by the AEM to join hands in the cleaning campaign, and their efforts are appreciated.”

Asked what is the plan after cleaning as there is no sustainability Khedama said.

“The intention of the AEM is ensuring that cleaning and cleanliness of the city are sustainable, and this is being attended to in different folds. The first approach is to sustain the campaign to a point where the day-to-day operations can respond adequately.

The second approach that leads to a safe and attractive municipality to work, invest and live in is through stabilizing work-force related issues and attending to the vacancy rate. Various other initiatives are also planned in the coming months that will be implemented in all towns of the Metro dealing with cleaning, greening as well as Separation at Source.

The cleaning campaign is aimed at augmenting normal day-to-day operations. The AEM is equally aware that the vacancy rate especially at service delivery points is high, hence the cleaning campaign that includes acceleration of other services such as sewer blockages, closing of potholes, attending to water leakages, and health inspections amongst others. This is so that we alleviate the service delivery burden that communities of Mangaung are exposed to daily.”

In conclusion, Khedama said law enforcement has low staff comportment but why redirect the same to the intervention team?

“The by-laws are being enforced; law enforcement is one of the areas that have a low staff complement to execute its responsibilities fully in all our regions. The administration is currently preoccupied with looking at all areas where there are key vacancies, but also considering issues of budget and Law Enforcement forms part of that category.

As the Metro, we also encourage people to take responsibility and take pride in their city and ensure that they do not dump everywhere, and they should discourage others to do so. This will go a long way in assisting the City to deal with lawlessness. The municipality is also undertaking public education and awareness campaigns, especially in the area of waste management.”

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