Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Executive Mayor Benson Fihla, affectionately known as Oom Ben, said that that the Bay community demanded that municipal politicians and administrators think outside the box.
Referring to the recent Mayoral Outreach programme, Oom Ben said requests were received from members of the community to implement solar energy systems in shack areas to curb the high rate of shack fires and deaths; and that vegetable gardens must be established in areas where illegal dumping is taking place.
Considering these interesting requests and others, Mayor Fihla encouraged Nelson Mandela Bay residents to make the public participation process for the Integrated Development Plan and the 2014 Capital and Operational Budget more vibrant.
“This is crucial as the unnecessary division between the municipality and the community it serves, comes to an end.
“During the Mayoral Outreach housing delivery issues and rectification were at the top of the priority lists of all the areas that we visited.
“Other important concerns included the bucket system, long delays before the Environment Impact Assessments are completed, account queries as well as the inaccurate billing for water due to estimations, amongst others.
“When we reach out to our communities, their plight must be appropriately documented and a programme of action must be put in place to deal with their concerns.
“Amongst the many important items tabled before us today, I would like to touch on the development of an effective close circuit TV strategy and a Community Safety Strategy through community participation.
“This is important as the crime statistics that were released last month must serve as encouragement to work actively towards safer communities and not only leave it up to the South African Police Services.
“The establishment of the Task Team is important as we would like them to develop proposals on how best to mould our strategies and policies in this regard. We all need to do our part to make our communities safer to ensure that future generations inherit a city that they can be proud of. We are relying on the Task Team to do its work carefully and to come with workable solutions, ” Mayor Fihla said.
Editor: I agree – come out of the box lined with velvet, steak, whiskey and cigars and experience real life for a change.
NMB Communications
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