Polokwane Municipality does not care
The slogan of Polokwane municipality is “Naturally Progressive”.
Well, it will have to happen naturally or by act of God because it will not happen if it depends on some officials.
My daughter lives in a town house in Polokwane where the previous inhabitants ran up a nearly R2000,00 water and electricity account. “Not to worry”, the official told them when they moved in. The municipality would get it back from the previous inhabitants, but that it remained the responsibility of the owner.
Big was their surprise when they returned home from work on Monday and found dry taps. They found out that the water supply was cut because of the arrears. They received no notice.So they paid the required amount. On Tuesday afternoon, they were told that the officials who had to reconnect the supply was busy doing just that and that they would only reconnect in the evening due to their workload.
At 19:00 a supervisor said he was red-faced as he could not reach his team busy with the reconnecting due to the fact that they switched off their cell phones. At 23:00 my daughter phoned another official at home who said she could do nothing more that night.
On Wednesday morning my son-in-law phoned the municipality to enquire what was going on. He was told that the connection could not be done because the water meters were behind a gate that was locked. The young man lost it and the conversation ended when the official put the phone down in his ear. Later she called back and confirmed that the meters were indeed outside the gate and that they would do the connection.
The connection was done just before 13:00 on Wednesday – nearly 48 hours after it was paid.
So why is this something to complain about? After all, this is South Africa, isn’t it? No it isn’t.
1. it should not happen
2. my children should at least have received proper notice
3. how can officials just switch off their cell phones and wipe their behinds on their supervisor?
4. why are officials misinformed about whether meters are behind closed gates or not?
It appears that there is no discipline, no work ethic, no pride and no authority in the Municipality of Polokwane. Employees need not listen to instructions because if the supervisor gives them trouble, he/she is branded a racist and we have a march or a strike on our hands.
Could it be that Polokwane suffers because its officials are not civil servants but deployed cadres? Could it be because people are not appointed on merit but on the basis of who they know or what they did for the struggle? Is it because officials are not answerable to the citizens, but to the master who gave them the job?
So, why am I so excited about this?
Because a home with a two-month old baby girl had to go without water to drink and to bath in for two nights and two days, that’s why!
Certain officials in Polokwane Municipality do not care for the people. There is little I can do about it.
But what I can do is to write on my blog and tell the world that the Polokwane Municipality protects incompetent officials, there is no discipline in the organisation, it is run by employees and not by managers and the service stinks!
And then I can expect to be intimidated, not so? Maybe. But the age of social media has arrived and what I have written here, stands forever.
The Internet does not forget.