Friends of Our City

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

Some weeks ago, our President said in an interview on East Coast Radio that the Chamber urged people in the city to support the Municipality by paying their dues timeously and, if possible, early, so as to ease the cash flow burden.   Within a few days, we had received more than one quite abusive call from people who were clearly aggrieved that the PCB was making this plea.  After all, they claimed, a great many compliant rates and tariff payers had been rigorous in carrying out their obligations, only to be let down by an errant group of councillors and municipal officials who, even despite the appointment of a turnaround team, were still not providing the services for which people were paying.    Since the launch of the Friends of Our City initiative, similar questions have been posed.    This constructive initiative, which, primarily we believe, is one to harness private sector expertise which could assist the Municipality, was rather compromised by media reports that seemed to focus on picking up litter and cutting the verges.    A number of volunteers, both individuals and companies, have already embarked on projects to attend to these menial, but significant, tasks.   The systematic organisation of volunteered and available expertise is still to be done and needs to be integrated into a revised municipal structure which, according to the Mayor, will accommodate such advisory programmes. 

It is easy to resent calls for assistance in cleaning up the city when we know that staff are employed, and are being paid, to do this.   That they are not doing it satisfactorily is attributable to years of poor management.   Because a lot of this has to do with labour relations – a sphere in which the municipal officials have allowed themselves to be browbeaten to the point of impotence – an insistence on changes may well run counter to the law.    An employer cannot summarily change conditions of service without the agreement of employees and what has been acceptable practice over a period of time has become, de facto, the current set of service conditions.    This situation will not persist as the administration team is well aware of the difficulties and will resolve them accordingly.  But this cannot be done in a few days and it will be some time, I expect, before residents will be happy with the cleanliness of the city.    In the meantime, we have a choice.   We can continue to complain or we can decide that, since it is our city and it means something to us, we can play a part in improving the situation.   It is difficult not to have sympathy with those who feel that it is the responsibility of the Municipality to sort this out and that their assistance will come at a price – a reduction or waiver of tariffs.   Others, as we have seen, have resorted to protests to show how strongly they feel about this lack of delivery.    At least one company has decided that the street in which it is located is an eyesore and reflects badly on the company itself.   It embarked on a clean-up, and now its environment is close to pristine and it has derived some pride from the exercise.

At the root of the tension seems to be the perception that residents and rate-payers are across the fence from local government.   We are victims; they are abusing us.   Their lack of genuine interest in the welfare of the city and its people, has deprived us of our own interest.   We, or they perhaps, have forgotten that they are accountable to us; not to a political paradigm that appears to be remote from ordinary citizens’ daily lives.   This is clearly reflected by community protests against the very leaders for whom they have voted.   It’s as if the political arena is a castle protected by an impenetrable moat, which, for example, necessitates the perpetuation of rate-payers associations when the law provides for ward committees to serve similar purposes.    But they don’t work, for the most part.   Ward councillors are caucus-bound and the citizens have no confidence in the structures.

Many have forgotten - this is our city; not the Mayor’s nor the Municipal Manager’s, nor the ANC’s.    It is up to us to determine the kind of city we wish to live in.  We have the power to vote, to complain and to demand; and we have the power to make a constructive contribution towards its welfare.     

Leave a Comment