Author: Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe

On Wednesday, 28 September 2022, the Executive Mayor of George, Ald Leon van Wyk wrote to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to petition against Eskom’s proposed electricity tariff increase of 32% in the 2023/2024 financial year.

The letter to NERSA is as follows:
As Executive Mayor of George Municipality, I am writing to you on behalf of the citizens of George, to appeal to you not to grant Eskom’s application to increase the price of electricity by 32% in the 2023/2024 financial year,” his letter read to NERSA.

“In my letter addressed to you earlier this year on the question of Eskom’s increases for 2022/23, I stated that our citizens are not able to afford increases at a level above the inflation rate. It is unfair, unaffordable, and unjustified to expect citizens to pay increases substantially above the inflation rate.

Across the country, we are already burdened with high food and fuel prices. The recent hefty interest rate hike adds to the high cost of living making it even more difficult for citizens to make ends meet. Moreover, the requested increase will further cripple businesses financially that are already struggling to operate profitably, and to sustain and create jobs. It will destroy the hope of economic recovery in South Africa and add to our burden of poverty.

On behalf of George Municipality, I am therefore objecting in the strongest possible terms to any increase in the price of electricity that is above an inflation increase. We, accordingly, appeal to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to reject the proposal.

The price of electricity has risen by more than 500% over the past 16 years, far exceeding inflation over that time. Over this period in which electricity has become steadily more expensive, the security of our electricity supply has progressively become more unreliable. This year is already the worst year of load-shedding on record. The Stage 6 load-shedding we have experienced in the last short period destroyed R4,2 billion in value from our South African economy each day.

It is unacceptable that Eskom is trying to shield itself from the commercial consequences of years’ worth of mismanagement and poor maintenance of its infrastructure by drastically raising its prices at the time that it is least able to supply electricity to the country. Consumers correctly do not understand the logic of Eskom requesting a 32% increase when it is unable to reliably supply electricity. It would therefore be an unspeakable injustice to burden struggling South Africans even further by making them Eskom’s financial scapegoat.

It is now the time, however, that Eskom undertakes the drastic measures needed to reduce the bloated salary bill, stop the mismanagement, inflated tenders, corruption, etc. and recover the outstanding debt not being paid by defaulters. The municipalities that are up to date with their Eskom account are burdened with huge increases because of the many municipalities that have huge outstanding debt owing to Eskom.

We have not seen meaningful progress on any of these aspects, and yet Eskom is still willing to make ordinary South Africans pay for its lack of action. NERSA must reject this application and insist that the remedial action be implemented.

At George Municipality we have committed ourselves to work tirelessly to bring down the cost of electricity for our citizens through the procurement of our own generated electricity from cheaper sources than Eskom. Our Council has approved the necessary funding for these projects to source up to 15% of our daily off-take from Eskom within the next three years.

Our Municipality is fully aware of the challenges facing Eskom and is working with all stakeholders to find acceptable solutions for businesses and domestic consumers. There are large commercial undertakings and hospitals (as examples), that operate on a 24-hour basis, that are being drastically affected by the ongoing load-shedding. They look to the Municipality in an endeavour to find solutions that will enable them to stay in business. An increase of 32% would send the wrong message to all electricity consumers.

NERSA should rather endeavour to work with the private sector and those Municipalities capable of procuring alternative sources of electricity by only permitting inflation-based tariff increases to ensure that there is a focus on bringing additional electricity online over the next three to four years to assist with the supply constraints faced by Eskom.

I trust that this letter will receive your urgent attention and ensure that Eskom’s application for a price increase is limited to the increase in the consumer price index.

Ends.

“George Municipality is ready!” So cheered a group of George Municipality’s jubilant officials who will participate in this weekend’s Garden Route Sport and Recreation Day which will take place on Friday 30 September 2022 at Riversdale.

In a special address by the Executive Mayor of George, Alderman Leon van Wyk on Tuesday afternoon at the George Municipality’s Banquet Hall, the executive mayor wished the officials success in their participation in these games, formerly known as Better Together Games.

More than just over 80 employees of the George Municipality are set to participate in this year’s Garden Route Sport and Recreation Day. In a programme that was released to the participants, indications are that the Western Cape Minister of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, MEC Anroux Marais deliver a keynote address to officially open the sport and recreation day.

The Garden Route Sport and Recreation Day is an annual sports event that is hosted by Sport and Recreation Services of the Western Cape Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport involving government officials in the various districts of the province as well as in the metropole to try their hand at soccer, mini-cricket, volleyball, tug of war, chess, athletics and many other codes at the Better Together Games (BTG) for government officials.

The George Municipality has always been part of the Better Together Games since its inception in 2007 and successfully brought back gold, silver and bronze medallions and gone through to the final games. The George Municipality has last attended the finals known as the Corporate Games in 2019 and won gold in both Rugby cricket and dominoes.

“Did you exercise, are you fit?” Ald van Wyk quipped. “Go and make us proud, and please be cautious and we do not want to hear of any injuries, go out there and enjoy yourselves,” he said. In response to the mayor’s message, the group of officials shouted with joy said, “We are ready!”, assuring the Executive Mayor and the city of George that they will make the city proud.

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The Municipal Manager of the George Municipality, Dr Michele Gratz commended the municipality’s Chief Audit, Jean-Pierre Rossouw for his re-election as the Chairperson of the Western Cape Local Government Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Forum recently.

 “We are proud to have an official of Mr Rossouw’s calibre and we wish him well with the task ahead of him for the new term,” said Dr Gratz.

Rossouw shared the news of his re-election on his LinkedIn account on Tuesday, 18 September 2022: “I’m truly honoured to have been re-elected as the Chairperson of the Western Cape Local Government Chief Audit Executive (CAE) Forum for a second term. I’m looking forward to continuing to add value to the municipal internal audit environment,” Rossouw said.

“Today we held yet another successful CAE Forum. Attendees included delegates from National Treasury, Western Cape Provincial Treasury, the IIASA, invited guests and presenters, as well the CAEs and CROs from municipalities throughout the Western Cape Province. Covering topics such as the NT FMCMM; AC induction and training; IIASA Feedback; Importance of MFMA Circular 65.”  

“We also had a very interesting knowledge-sharing session on the practical implementation of Agile auditing. I am thoroughly enjoying my role as Chairperson of such a vibrant forum,” he concluded.

Ends.

As South Africans, we have learnt to be resilient and shown the ability to adapt to circumstances. The recent experiences of enduring Stages 5 and 6 of load shedding require us all to make adaptations to how we manage our lives. I was recently privileged to attend an Energy Summit where the Eskom CEO, Andre de Ruyter spoke about the power station fleet that had been operated at maximum capacity for too long. This means that maintenance needs to be undertaken to avoid complete breakdowns. New generating capacity will have to be built over the next 15 years.

On an ongoing basis the municipality is examining a range of projects to mitigate the risks in supplying electricity to our customer base:

• We have installed 25 generators at our critical installations ranging from water and waste-water treatment works, and critical pump stations to buildings. These generators need to be constantly re-fuelled with diesel as we attempt to keep operations going under conditions where Eskom is unable to provide electricity for up to eight hours per day.
• We are concerned about key businesses and installations that are large employers, energy-intensive users or who need to operate 24/7. We are searching for solutions that can assist them.
• We are progressing with plans to implement renewable energy plants that will reduce bulk purchases from Eskom to avoid implementation of some load shedding stages.

Our customers can assist in this adaptation process by “shifting their loads” to reduce the maximum electricity capacity that they use through an awareness of not operating too many high-capacity appliances at the same time. The objective is to reduce peaks experienced in the early morning and evening. Success in this adaptation will strengthen our negotiations with Eskom to start avoiding painful load shedding Stages.

We have recently undertaken road-building activity on some of our Provincial roads and Go George routes. We receive grants equivalent to 80% of the project cost on provincial roads that requires spending within defined timelines. Fortunately, the Langenhoven Road and Market Street projects are approaching completion. Work will shortly also be undertaken on York Street. We appreciate how our citizens have adapted their travel routines to ensure the completion of these projects.

Communication is currently underway to appeal to our citizens living close to the forest and mountains to provide advice on co-existence with baboons who periodically enter living areas in search of food. The 2018 George Fire severely damaged their habitat and food sources. Scientific advice is that humans make small adaptations to their routines to improve co-existence.

We express our gratitude to our citizens for their patience in dealing with the adaptations they have been making as we work together building a well-run city.

Ald Leon van Wyk

Executive Mayor of George

Five officials from the George Municipality received training in creative filmmaking on the 13^th and 14^th of September 2022 at the George Tourism office to enhance local tourism marketing strategies. Local filmmaking experts conducted the training as part of a service level agreement with the Garden Route Film Commission.

According to the George Tourism manager, Joan Shaw, the objective of the training which is intended for Municipal staff is to have a better understanding of the film industry, and what is required, as film productions are a target market for Tourism and Economic Development. “As part of the tourism marketing strategy, we want to empower staff that work with social media and projects, and general photography, which requires filming skills to improve the quality of their shoots.  We also encourage creativity and keeping up with trends in this fast-paced industry to keep relevant and get noticed,” Shaw said.

Three of the five trainees were officials from the Tourism office and two from the office of the municipal manager and the communication department, and they all never had experience in filmmaking. One of the trainees, Aphiwe Jack from the office of the municipal manager, said: “The film training was highly informative and fun at the same time. I learnt about the different types of gadgets being used in the film industry, from cameras, lenses, and stabilizers to lights and video editing software. Our team was amazing, thanks to all of them for making it such a wonderful experience for me, and finally, a huge thanks to the facilitators for such a splendid job showing us all the hard work it takes to become professionals in the film industry,” Jack added.

The training was conducted by Letitia Cunningham (Director Garden Route Film Commission), Megan Cunningham a multi-creative and a youth developer and Calvin Claassen an independent content creator and designer in the film industry. To add lustre to the training which included the outdoor taking of video shots, Pamela Pelser, a line dance choreographer from Step Together Line Dance School introduced a few dance moves to the trainees who responded fluently, and smoothly to the movements.

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Caption:

From left: Megan Cunningham (Facilitator), Letitia Cunningham (Facilitator), Lindi Harley (Tourism Officer – Membership), Aphiwe Jack (receptionist – office of the Municipal Manager), Luthando Ndende (Tourism Intern), Heloine America (Tourism Officer), Joan Shaw (Tourism Manager), Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe (Senior Communication & Intergovernmental Relations Officer), and in front Calvin Claassen (Facilitator).