A balancing act: Keeping George on track

GEORGE NEWS - The good and the bad were shared during an e-meeting on Tuesday with Mayor Leon van Wyk's address to Council. He kicked off with the good stuff, saying the municipality is actively addressing the town's bulk infrastructure needs and ageing infrastructure.

"Over the past few weeks we have been informed that the efforts of the last six months to secure additional grant funding and support for our infrastructure upgrades have received positive feedback," he said.

Acting Municipal Manager Michele Gratz has been informed that the application for inclusion in the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant process has been favourably received.

"This relates in particular to Thembalethu. This will enable the technical and financial assessments to be undertaken," said Van Wyk.

Gratz was also informed by National Treasury that their project submission for admission to the Budget Facility for Infrastructure Process has been registered for George's water and sanitation projects.

"Entry into this programme is viewed as extremely tough and as council we will need to ensure that our conduct is exemplary to ensure that we qualify in all respects," said Van Wyk. "The details of the submissions now require review by the advisers to permit progress for success in the applications."

Strike

Van Wyk commented on the unprotected strike last Wednesday, 23 June, saying after interaction with the union (Samwu), it was decided to obtain a court interdict to ensure that services could continue to be delivered to their 60 000 customers. "The union has acceded to the matter being heard in court on 6 August which places the matter as sub judice until then. In the meantime, services are back on track."

Debtors

The municipality faces a debtors amount of R340-million since the end of May. This is a 27% increase of R72-million from May 2020's figure of R268-million. "R145-million of this debt is older than one year and R67-million relates to debt older than 90 days, but less than one year," said Van Wyk.

"There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed significantly to this escalation. In accounting terms and in practical terms, the collection of debt older than 90 days becomes doubtful."