I was reading this article below and really just cannot believe how crazy this is. We are communities of great people in this country and the people of South Africa have triumphed over tougher conditions that we are currently in. Why is all this happening now? The answer is in our consumerised mind-set. We have all been trained to believe that the government is our source for water, energy, and who knows what else and we must just sit back and they will do the rest. Well that is just simply not the truth. As communities, we are supposed to play a part in the process of our service delivery. In some cases it is paying rates, but what happens when there are so many people who do not earn a viable income to allow the payment of rates. Our country faces this issue right now where the bulk of our communities do not pay rates for service and still expect services. It does not seem fair? But these are how the communities are suffering.
The solution is simple, we need to look back to our fore father who had to work on their own communities to keep them safe or provide for their water or power needs. In those days, there was no piped water and each community was based on where they could sink a bore hole or near a stream that they would have to protect from their enemies who would contaminate their drinking water. Now you are probably thinking that I am asking us to go back to that time. No, what I am saying is that communities need to use the strength of their youths and the wisdom of their elders and the unity of them together to solve these issues with their local municipalities. Here are some ways to do this:
1. Communities can bring all their rubbish to one central point which will reduce the number of trips and costs for their local municipality.
2. Communities can cut an clean their own verges, which builds a pride for your local community and helps reduce the number of trips the Parks department have to make.
3. Picking up litter. This helps reduce the number of times a refuse team need to sweep through the streets.
4. As a combined community buy some water tanks that can be used to water gardens or for additional uses.
5. If the funding is available set up solar panels on the people’s roofs to create a solar farm that the whole community can use and maybe even to power the local street lights.
6. There are many more ways that we can use our skills and abilities to help in our local communities, what are yours?
I am sure that there are many other ideas and I would love to hear them, but ultimately the municipality are supposed to be doing their jobs and it is not the municipality that are not doing their work, it is the people who work in the municipality who are sitting around doing very little instead of serving the communities that they have been put into to work in. You see, in the old days (not apartheid days) the communities used to know who the postman was, who the policeman was and who all the people where that provided services in their communities. If a service was not done, then that person was held responsible for this issue. Today, the staff turnover in the municipalities is so great that you never quite know who is doing the community services in your area. This however can also be solved by the community getting to know those people who are looking after these services. Not just when they are complaining, but instead all the time, even when things are good.
Communities and people of South Africa, get together in your communities and start working together on ideas on how to work with your local municipality to get your community cleaned up and working for you. Don’t sit back and wait for bad service or a lack of service. Don’t just fight against the municipality, fight for your rights by being a part of the solution. Pay your rates where they are due. Get to know your community leaders and workers. Speak to them. Invite them for a braai and get to know them as well. Communities are the building blocks of South Africa, not the government. The government is a representation of those communities and the people in that government should be the servants to their communities in which they live.
Here is the article that sparked this blog. http://www.fin24.com/Economy/Reduced-service-delivery-on-the-cards-20130717
If you have an idea on how to improve service delivery in your local community, then please add a comment to this blog at http://www.emilswanepoel.com
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