Author: Debra Sauer

Regional Commissioner for the Western Cape, Department of Correctional Services (DCS) Delikile Klaas was joined on Wednesday 5 July by Doc Skosana (DCS: Area Coordinator Development and Care), Johan Vermaak (DCS:”Area Coordinator Corrections) and Eddie Myners ( DCS: Head of George Correctional Centre) to celebrate the arrival of the Netball World Cup Trophy 2023 in George.

George Municipality together with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport(DCAS) jointly hosted the World Cup Netball Trophy Handover attended by Western Cape MEC for Cultural Affairs and Sport,  Anroux Marais and Executive Mayor for George Leon Van Wyk. The Local Organizing Committee which includes DCAS, the George Branch of Department of Correctional Services and Eden Netball Federation ensured that it was a fun-filled event with music and plenty of gees!

George Municipality has the honour of being the only city in the Garden Route District that has been allocated a Netball World Cup Fan Park to be hosted at Rosemore Stadium and this is also where DCS George has pulled out all the stops and assisted tremendously. Teams of offenders have been busy since early this week repairing, painting and cleaning Rosemore Stadium and its surrounds, to ensure that the Fan Park which will host up to 2000 netball supporters per day is in tip top condition. The Fan park is hosted in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) from 28^th July to 6^th August 2023.

The official Opening Ceremony on the 28 July and the Closing Ceremony on the 6 August will take place at the Rosemore Stadium. Over 25 Schools have been invited to participate in a Primary and High School Netball Tournament during the week, with local Social Clubs being given an opportunity to participate over the two weekends.

#NWCfanparkgeorge

#Cityofgeorge

#NWC20238

#Putyourhandsup

#netballfamily

NETBALL World Cup Fridays – every Friday at George Municipality!
In the run-up to the World Cup NETBALL Friday’s are being rolled out across South Africa. George Municipality, DCAS and DCS invite all businesses and institutions to show your solidarity with the participating Netball Teams, by dressing in your netball uniform OR any colours (flags or netball uniforms) of your team of choice, who will participate during the Netball World Cup. Participating Teams will be South Africa, Australia, Barbados, England, Fiji, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, Wales and Zimbabwe.

This newsletter is being written shortly before the U18 Rugby Craven Week programme begins in George. As host school for this prestigious sporting event, Outeniqua High School has no doubt spent months planning for this occasion.

The rains earlier in June resulted in the School’s fields becoming waterlogged. A decision was made to switch the matches to Outeniqua Park where there has been feverish activity over the past week or two to prepare for an event involving 16 provincial teams playing 24 matches. We are pleased with the energy and efforts of the work teams from George Municipality who have put in many hours to quickly prepare the facility to receive our visitors over the week.  It is an honour for George to be able to present itself to all the supporters accompanying the team along with the media and television crew.

As with all major sports, the young players attending a tournament on the national stage have opportunities to display their talents and abilities to selectors and scouts. Sterling performances could result in scholarships and contracts to further their sporting careers.

George is extremely proud in observing how various sporting codes and the supportive tourism stakeholders have stepped up to present sporting events of a very high standard. Progressively we are achieving our objective to add events throughout the year to attract tourists from across the country. This helps us build viability, sustainability and employment within the tourism sector.

At George Municipality we are constantly working to create an enabling environment for ease of doing business e.g. through the improvement in turnaround times for approving project and development proposals. These ambitions can best be fostered through ongoing collaborative efforts. It is encouraging to experience how individuals and companies approach us with novel ideas for projects whereby value can be added to the George brand.

The benefits that will flow from this tournament will include spending on hotel and guest house accommodation, restaurants, transportation, retailers, activities and indirectly on goods and services incurred before and during the event. As we grow sustainable tourism, opportunities for the arts and craft sector also emerge. Around George there are businesses that have grown from the crafting abilities of talented individuals into recognised brand names – we need the next generation of smart products.

An event such as Craven Week will also create livelong memories for participants and spectators. Not only does this event promote a healthy and active lifestyle but also opportunities to enhance emotional and mental well-being along with lessons about dealing with success and disappointment in life.

By the time this newsletter is read, we trust that the hundreds of supporters accompanying the teams to George would have had a wonderful experience.

George Municipality was well represented at the most recent tenth annual Western Cape Property Development Forum (WCPDF) Conference held from 8-9 June in Cape Town, CTICC.  The WCPDF is a registered non-profit organisation founded in 2008 to create awareness, address the challenges that face the property development and construction industry and to be the collective voice of the industry in the Western Cape. The Forum is a representative body for the property development and construction industry in the Western which promotes the interests of the industry. The Forum also facilitates relations between the industry and authorities, as well as actively engaging in the education and transformation of the industry.

Executive Mayor, Ald Leon van Wyk, noted that the value of George attending the WCPDF conference was recognised in having the Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz and the Director Human Settlements, Planning and Development, Lauren Waring participating in two panel discussions relating to the role of municipalities and their policies in unlocking land for development and the ease of doing business. “They proudly communicated George’s offering to the 350 delegates. The conference also covered micro-development, the product offered by the Western Cape and infrastructure. We believe that there will be positive outcomes from useful discussions that took place on the sidelines of the conference,” he said.

While the rest of South Africa remains suspended in a political and economic holding pattern, the Western Cape is moving forward, with the huge contribution made by the property development and construction industry. This trend is certainly being seen in George, where the city is experiencing exponential investment and growth. The annual WCPDF conference brings together thought leaders from the public and private sectors involved in fixed capital investment, and who aim to work together to tackle the challenges and celebrate the achievements of our sector. Delegates range from across the built environment, representative of the many facets that make up the industry, from large-scale developers to micro-developers and the many professional consultants, contractors and other service providers who work within the sector.

Ms Waring formed part of a panel for Day One which discussed how to unlock municipal land for development, and which was facilitated by Kobus Munro, Director Development Management: Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning. Dr Gratz participated in a panel discussion on the role of the Municipal Manager facilitated by Deon Van Zyl, Chairperson of the WCPDF.  Discussions ranged from the challenge of obtaining clean audits,  to stressing the importance of being development-orientated and making provision for the growth of the town through the provision of adequate infrastructure. Dr Gratz highlighted the phenomenal expansion in infrastructure projects over the past three years and the allocation of the BFI funding, with George being the first non-metro to be awarded such funding which has raided the city’s budget over the R1 Billion mark.

The invitation to participate  on the panels emanated from a presentation at the 2022 WCPDF Conference, where Ald Van Wyk presented the opportunities that George offers. Another result from last year’s conference was the establishment of a local chapter of the WCPDF: the Southern Cape Property Development Forum which has been actively engaging with the municipality.

In the photograph George team take a selfie in auditorium – from left Lauren Waring, Director Human Settlements, Planning and Development; Dr Michele Gratz, Municipal Manager and Ald Leon Van Wyk.

Dr Michele Gratz Municipal Manager for George and Joggie Scholtz, Municipal Manager for Swartland Municipality.

George Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz, created an avenue for staff to share their ideas and suggestions on improving health and safety awareness in the workplace. The best ideas are rewarded with a gift voucher sponsored personally by the Municipal Manager.

Winning ideas included a Health and Safety “Treasure Hunt”, a handy QR code providing a quick link to forms for reporting incidents and a point system per department for documentation handed in timeously.

In the photograph: Dr Michele Gratz (second from left), George Municipal Manager, with the winners of the Occupational Health and Safety awareness ideas from left, Jonique Gozongo from Community Services, Tracy du Plooy from the Municipal Manager’s Office and Cobus Smit from Finance Services.

Executive  Mayor of George,  Leon van Wyk and Portfolio Councillor for Human Settlements and George Municipal officials visited a home in Preekstoel Street, Blanco where the Directorate of Human Settlements has  improved access to the property. A retaining wall has been built and  the Directorate did earth moving, installed gutters and downpipes to channel and to re-route run-off during rainfall. Similar work to improve access and build retaining  walls has been completed at another 58 properties in Rosedale, Touwsranten and Blanco since the start of the current financial year. Each property was assessed and dealt with to ensure suitable solutions and to alleviate problem areas.

In the photograph from left at the access stairs to the home in Preekstoel Street, Blanco are Cllr Bazil Petrus, Portfolio Councillor of Human Settlements, Madoda Bokwe, Clerk of Works at Human Settlements, Planning and Development, Charne Flores, Project Administrator at Human Settlements, Planning and Development and Mayor Leon van Wyk.

Our citizens and businesses encounter daily challenges with loadshedding.

On social media it is noticeable how many queries are raised about the delays in switching
on power at the end of loadshedding. Previously, George was able to switch on promptly at
the end of a loadshedding stage. The increased installation of batteries and inverters in
combination with 4-hour stages and winter has resulted in greater peak pressures on the
grid. With these peaks, the municipality now needs to stagger the switching-on in sections
to prevent the electricity demand exceeding the normalised maximum demand that Eskom
is contracted to provide. Every sub-station has a maximum rating, which if exceeded will
result in a trip with potentially serious damage to transformers.

I would like to make an urgent and serious appeal to all households and businesses to only
switch on geysers during off-peak night hours, and to delay turning on inverters, battery
chargers and high consuming appliances (kettles, hairdryers, stoves, heaters, etc) until 5-20
minutes after power has been restored. This is a discipline and habit that we all need to
adopt to avoid that our municipal grid trips resulting in lengthy outages.

The Electro-tech Directorate is already under enormous pressure as they repair almost daily
faults and repairs triggered by loadshedding. Other municipalities are reporting extended
outages resulting from such damage.

It is therefore critical that this message is circulated to your friends and to social media
communication groups of which you are a member.

All businesses are being negatively affected by loadshedding as they lose productive hours
during their working days. It is probably important that they introduce shifts to coincide
with power availability in an attempt to maintain the necessary work output.

The municipality is working non-stop to implement alternative energy solutions to replace
electricity that Eskom is unable to provide. Various smaller projects are underway to supply
3MW of solar power (and battery storage) for own infrastructure (e.g. water treatment and
waste water plants) and to save 4MW through energy efficiencies. We have also
commenced with the construction of a 10MW solar PV plant. On completion of these
projects by the end of 2024, we want to be able to avoid Stage 2 of loadshedding. With the
necessary discipline and assistance of our electricity consumers in managing their own use
we can reduce the daily offtake from Eskom and reduce loadshedding.

Technical and financial feasibility studies are already far advanced as we finalise a project
application (to be lodged shortly) that will exceed R1,5 billion to install additional solar PV
and battery storage equipment to generate sufficient power to avoid Stage 4 of
loadshedding by the end of 2026. We need to focus on these goals.