“A THOUSAND steps begins with a single step,” Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) executive mayor Xola Phakathi said last week, when he tabled the municipality’s plans for delivering basic services to the residents of Buffalo City for the next 100 days.
Among the many plans, is the filling of vacant funded posts. As at July 1, there were 694 vacant posts.
“To date we have filled a total of 233 posts – 55 constitute promotions within the municipality and 178 were new appointments.
“We are going to fill all the vacant posts by December this year. This includes that of the acting city manager,” Phakathi said.
After 47 days in office, they have been meeting with several stakeholders.
With ratepayers complaining the municipality does not read meters, Phakathi said the municipality has commenced with a process to implement a new meter reading system with the latest technology.
“Sometimes, we estimate and use last month’s meter readings because when we get to people’s houses, they are not there and it is your duty to come to our offices with a new meter reading,” he said.
The new system is expected to be active this month.
What will come as a relief to ratepayers is that next month, the municipality will have a pre-payment system for BCM residents to buy prepaid electricity through the internet, ATM and cellphones.
Acting city manager Nceba Ncunyana said they are doing everything in-house with their newly appointed IT manager.
“It is very easy and it is aimed at increasing the city’s revenue. We are using the latest technology to cut the travelling time to vendors for consumers,” Ncunyana said.
Phakathi said, after the 100 days he will call another media briefing to bring BCM residents up to date on what has been done.
