Gaining Community Trust

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Mayor Afzul Rehman has been dubbed Mr Service Delivery by the local community. He believes his attentiveness to the financial affairs of the municipality has earned him this title. “When I accepted the position as acting mayor in early 2009 we were expected to present council with a draft budget almost immediately.” After analysing the previous year’s budget he found that R800 million was being spent on operations while only R68 million was going to capital infrastructure development. “If you looked at the need, R68 million was miniscule and this needed to be reformed.”
Rehman immediately embarked on a stringent cost-cutting exercise. “We visited each municipal department and examined expenses. We wanted to know why certain expenses were allowed to slip. For example, if we found a telephone bill of R5 000 and believed this was excessive, we asked for justification.”

The first budget he compiled increased capital infrastructure spending to R172 million simply by cutting unnecessary operational costs. The mayor named the budget, Speeding up Change. While it clearly identified the need to improve townships it was also important to retain the integrity of municipalities. “I saw a trend in other areas to allocate funds to informal settlement development at the expense of continued maintenance in residential areas. I did not want this to happen in our municipality.”

In 2010 the capital infrastructure spend was increased to R229 million, and the mayor dubbed this budget, Working Harder Faster. The following year it increased to R308 million and for the current year R380 million has been made available. “The budgets of the last few years show a steady increase in capital infrastructure spending. People appreciate the improved infrastructure – like electricity – because they can see and feel the difference it makes in their lives.”

Eskom could not provide electrical infrastructure quickly enough in some areas. “We entered into an agreement where we provide the investment capital needed to provide people with electricity and the utility agreed to reimburse us at a later date. It must be said that all of this was done without increasing rates and taxes beyond normal inflation and not a single loan was taken out.”

National Water Week – 2014

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The Newcastle Municipality, under the theme, water is life, 20 years of water delivery for social and economic development, embarked on an educational water campaign which began from 17—23 March 2014. National Water Week is an awareness campaign by the Department of Water Affairs which serves as a powerful tool of re-iterating the value of water and the need for sustainable management.

The campaign started off with senior citizens being taken on an educational of the water treatment plants and carwashes with a high rate of water wastage were also visited. As the campaign moved forward households with reported water leakage were repaired. In addition, public areas were identified where the community at large was encouraged to engage in a dialogue with municipal water technicians on different methods as to how they can save water and the telephonic share call was made available to report water related or enquiries on 0860 144 144 as a method of encouraging the community to save water buckets were distributed.

The theme coincides with South Africa’s celebrations of 20 years of freedom and democracy. South Africans will also be encouraged to focus on the need to restore and preserve the integrity of this most precious resource which is water. In this campaign Newcastle Municipality also declared war against water leaks..

Protection Services event

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protection-services

In October 2012, Ms Zanele Sibisi, a fire fighter for the Newcastle Fire Station was selected as one of the eight finalists in the 2013 Centrum Guardian Project after displaying extreme bravery and dedication when rescuing a man from a bulk water pipe on the 4th of October after he was trapped inside while repairing a leak.

Zanele was awarded training worth an estimated valued of R20 000 for herself and her 42 colleagues in which the prizes included a Pump Operators Course with motor rescue. The Pump Operators Course was sponsored by GODIVA and the Vehicle Extrication Course was sponsored by Hamilton Hydraulics. These two courses took place on Thursday, 27 March 2014.

“Fire brigades have specific skills that need to be learnt and part of these skills requires a lot of critical thinking, thus there is a need to revisit the classrooms from time to time in order to keep up with the advancement of technology and once again we thank Miss Zanele Sibisi for her bravery and dedication”, concluded Protection Services Communication

Mandela’s Entrepreneurship and Careers Expo

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The Department of Economic Development and Tourism together with Amajuba District Municipality and
Newcastle Municipality hosted a Mandela’s Children Entrepreneurship and Careers Expo at Phelindaba
Sports grounds on 31 March 2014, with the aim to advice the youth in making astute career choices.
The expo was attended by MEC for KZN Social Development Ms Weziwe Thusi, Amajuba District Cllr Jabu
Khumalo, Newcastle Municipality Deputy Mayor Cllr Racheal Mdluli, Newcastle Municipality Speaker Cllr
MF Zikhali and Newcastle Municipality Porfolio Councillor for Community Services Cllr Nomathamsanqa
Kunene. Also in attendance was the youth of Amajuba District, exhibitors and young entrepreneurs who
motivated the young to grab the opportunities that have come with freedom and to use them wisely.

The Mayor of Amajuba District Cllr Jabu Khumalo gave a brief background of the event and reminded the
youth about the past and future of our country, and urged young people to take lead in economic
development.

Ms Weziwe Thusi advised the youth to work the ruling party to defend their democracy. “The youth must
work together to uplift their lives through co-operatives and economic development is at the top of the
ANC agenda therefore young people should seize opportunities presented to them”, she concluded.
Amongst the companies exhibited were Eskom, Transnet, as well as celebrities namely; Menzi Ngubane
(who plays Sibusiso Dlomo on Generations), Crew from Family Bonds, Zakes Bantwini and Yellow.

Freedom Flame – 20 Years of Democracy

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FREEDOM FLAME By Sithembile Monareng
On 19 March 2014 the freedom flame hailed the Amajuba District in celebration of 20 years of freedom
and democracy. The celebration was the major symbol of 20 years of democracy and the flame
symbolized the light prevailing over darkness.

MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dlomo in his capacity as champion of the Amajuba District together with the District
Mayor Cllr Jabu Khumalo and Newcastle Municipality Mayor Cllr Afzul Rehman celebrated with the people of Newcastle, highlighting service delivery achievements in our District.

“As the country celebrates 20 years of freedom and democracy, the flame presents an opportunity for us
to reflect on how our freedom and democracy was achieved and the achievements we have made over
the past 20 years. This moment affirmed the pride and dignity of our country and celebration of
humanity”, said Dr Dlomo.

Newcastle Municipality prides itself regarding all the achievements that has been made in the past 20 years, highlighting successful projects namely; Eco parks and outdoor gym, the Clifford Manana Bridge
(Asiphephe), KwaMathukuza housing projects, eTheku mall and other projects on the pipeline. He
acknowledged that more work still needs to be done to make Newcastle one town. – concluded Rehman

CCTV our Big Brother

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CCTV cameras are a modern way for crime prevention. As the municipality staff and management we need to have some knowledge of how these cameras work.

During each shift our operators will stop a camera from auto-patrolling and will manually move the camera to check around the area of the camera. When it does happen that the camera does not pick up a partcular incident it will be due to the camera being on patrol, covering specific areas that were set manually for that specific camera to cover.

Warning tips to all of us:
1. If you hire/employ a gardener/domestic worker, you need to now where he/she lives and always ask and keep a photo copy of his/her identity book.
2. Do not leave your money under the seat of your car. The police are dealing with many of these cases.
3. Avoid giving out your ID number on the telephone to strangers.
4. Physically check if your car is locked. Do not rely on your remote control.

“Love them or hate them but they are there to protect you”

Blue Drop status

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Newcastle boasts about the water quality and receiving 100% compliance in our drinking water and achieving Blue Drop Status. The upgrade and refurbishment of our wastewater facilities in Newcastle will undoubtedly place Newcastle at the fore even in green drop.

blue-drop-status

Newcastle embarks “On-Seperation” at source

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The Newcastle Municipality has embarked on our effort to separate waste a source. The introduction of a two bag system is underway. Residents are in support of separation at source- there is on-going education on separation at source. The department has taken educating each an every household which is still in progress, educating of what goes into these two bags- recyclable dry waste into the coloured or clear bag and residue waste into the black bag. Residents receive a fridge magnet to inform them of what should and should not go into these bags.

School learner utilised to educate their community about separation at source and issuing of magnets. Staff distributing these two bags.

Newcastle has a very charismatic leadership who are very involved in upholding the status of the Greenest Municipality. The municipality has gone paperless- the Executive Committee meetings are all paperless-every councillor has been trained and uses his/her laptop at meetings. This has saved the municipality enormously-producing agenda which is a concept of the past. Agenda are now received in a drop-box. Councillors are also involved in a Cleanest Ward Competition which highlights efforts by councillors in starting of community gardens to offer food sustainability-especially in rural areas of Newcastle. This competition has recognised efforts of recycling with wards and general cleanliness and educating learners on the importance of a clean and healthy environment.

Newcastle Municipality is gone a step further by joining co-operatives with business ventures of recycling of PET (Polyethylene Terephatalate).
Newcastle Municipality has achieved zero PET into land-fill, it is one of the municipality’s in the country to effect zero waste of PET into landfill. These co-operatives have embarked on receiving PET not only from Newcastle, but from other parts of the country to convert the PET into woven fibre which is another product which is used in jackets, pillow cases and furniture.

 

Landfill Site

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Landfill Site: Newcastle Landfill Site is a GMB+ site/Class 2 Landfill situated off the N11 on the Madadeni Road. The site is in the Amajuba District. The site boast about its site operations which is in compliance with regulations. The site is fully fenced, has a fully operational weighbridge and produces data for SAWIS, the site has boreholes which are monitored and results are measured against SANS 241 standards. The Site also deals with a large percentage of its biogenic waste through a waste diversion strategy. Most of the dry waste is also being diverted from site through an informal picking process. The site offers a methodology of sites similar in size to maximise out of the available airspace.

Adopt the River Project

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Adopt the River Project was initiated following the concerns of litter settling from the Bus and Taxi Rank into the Ncandu River. The project was launched by DEA last week 14 August 2013. The project has created an opportunity for 49 individuals who will be trained to cleaning the river by removing all the waste that converges on the river bank and into the river. All recyclable waste will be diverted from the waste stream and the other will be landfilled. The project cost to all beneficiaries is in the amount of R442 000. On-going Environmental Awareness with our co-operatives such MTN and Pick n Pay are keen on partnering with the Municipality to address the issues regarding our social behaviour and responsibility to a sustainable environment. We have also had enormous support from Umgeni Water and DEA on this project.