The Democratic Alliance in the eThekwini Municipality notes the announcement that a “Rapid Response Team” will be established to swiftly address the backlog of unattended matters relating to overgrown verges and trees in various wards across the city.
We are however requesting detailed information around the implementation, structure, and funding of this plan so that we can scrutinise it.
Whist the DA welcomes the move to clear the backlog, which has been a serious challenge in the city, important details on how this “team” will work is currently lacking. It is unclear if it is will be an in-house exercise or whether it will be outsourced and public funds will be used to fund it.
The DA notes that what is essentially the core function of the Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) Unit in terms of service delivery is now the responsibility of this Rapid Response Team (RRT). It further appears as if the head of this unit, Thembinkosi Ngcobo, has made a unilateral decision to establish this RRT as no such item was tabled before the Community Services Portfolio Committee. This committee has failed to field reports yet again, resulting in the sittings being postponed indefinitely!
This department is failing dismally in the very basic services that ratepayers have been paying for and casts a poor reflection on Thembinkosi Ngcobo’s leadership and management skills.
An important concern raised by the DA is in the implementation and turnaround time, which is purported to be within 2 days of receiving a complaint. The Parks department is struggling with its current budgeting as evidenced by a lack of equipment and human resources which is stifling service delivery. This begs the question of how the RRT will cure the dismal service delivery failures. How will this additional equipment needed be funded and at what cost to ratepayers?
The backlog within Parks, Recreation and Culture, ranges from uncut verges, bush clearing, tree trimming, verge maintenance, and weed spraying. One only has to take a short ride around any ward in the city to notice the collapse.
The DA will be closely monitoring this RRT to measure how effective they are in delivering services. We will further assess the RRT based on its terms of establishment and report back on whether it is a workable intervention.