There is no money for water, but Mangaung Metro Municipality is paying the salary of a metro police chief while, after years of empty promises, there is still no metro police service.
The ongoing water shortage in Mangaung caused by unpaid debt to the water supplier, Bloemwater, and the poor upkeep of infrastructure by the municipality are putting immense pressure on residents and local businesses.
Amid this crisis, an entire year after the mayor of the Mangaung Metro Municipality announced that a metro police chief was appointed, there is still no sign of a metro police service.
The FF Plus posed questions to the Mangaung Metro council to find out if any progress has been made with establishing the metro police service. The Metro management was also asked to indicate what the salary of the metro police chief, Ketsebae Kgamanyane, amounts to.
Parts of Bloemfontein are plagued by crime and traffic is not being policed. Disillusioned residents will also have to pay more for services in the next financial year seeing as the tariff hikes exceed the inflation rate.
Residents have the right to know what the metro police chief has done to establish a metro police department in the year after he was appointed. The FF Plus will pose further questions to the Minister of Cooperative Governance to determine whether the required legal processes were followed with the metro police chief’s appointment.
The FF Plus welcomes any and all measures aimed at ensuring the safety of the community and establishing an effective metro police service is certainly a step in the right direction.
The Metro can, however, not keep making empty promises and appointing senior managers who earn salaries while no services are being rendered.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Armand Cloete on FF Plus
South Africa Today – South Africa News
