GEORGE NEWS - Two incidents involving water repair teams from the Civil Engineering Department have two local estate managers wondering about the motives of the municipal employees who arrive after hours to attend to complaints about water leaks.
Johan van der Merwe, owner and manager of Le Grand Estate, said seven employees and three vehicles arrived on Monday night, 28 May, to fix a water leak in the estate that had been reported five days earlier.
"The water is left to run for days and then suddenly they pitch up in a big group to fix it in the dark. I cannot help wondering if they do this to receive double-time payment?"
Similarly, Welgelegen Estate manager Louis van Wyk said he reported a water leak on Sunday morning, 27 May. The water repair team arrived on the same day and dug a hole around the leak.
"On Monday morning I arrive to find an open hole and water that was streaming down the road. At 17:00 on Monday afternoon, the water team arrives again, after water has been running the whole day. The next morning, the water had stopped running, and the hole had been left uncovered. I tried to find out what was done on Monday and what had stopped the water from running, but could not get a definite answer.
"Someone said that it was not actually a leak, but seepage, but to my knowledge, seepage water does not come and go like that. It also rained on Monday night and the water has not reappeared."
On Thursday morning, 31 May, another bakkie "full of people" arrived to have a look at the leak, but left about five minutes later, said Van Wyk. "They did not take water samples, which was apparently the next step to determine the source of the water. I do not know who is in charge, but there is clearly a communication breakdown. Again it is man-hours and fuel expenses for the ratepayer."
The team came in two bakkies and a TLB to attend to the water leak at Le Grand.
Van Wyk said he got no feedback to his e-mail or telephonic complaints. "Nobody is available to take phone calls, because everyone is always in a meeting."
The George Herald reported in March that the projected overtime paid out to municipal officials and workers over a period of just six months was almost R21-million more than the budgeted amount. One employee had earned R80 000 in overtime in six months.
George Municipal Manager Trevor Botha said the civil engineering director, Reggie Wesso, met with a representative of the estate to discuss these issues, but the discussions ended in a deadlock.
"The municipality would like to resolve the issue and has called on the management of the estate to contact the department so that a practical solution can be found with regard to access to the estate. In general, the municipality has favourable working relationships with security complexes in the municipal area, but realises that protocols pertaining to access have to be formalised, and will start such a process. As was reported before, there is currently a limit to overtime because there are no funds for higher remuneration of workers. Unfortunately, this means that the response time can be longer than a day, and cases where sewage spills and pipe bursts affect a lot of people sometimes have to receive preference."
'We bring you the latest George, Garden Route news'
