Newcastle Mayor, Xolani Dube, alongside Speaker of Council, Thengi Zulu and the Strategic Executive Director for Technical Services Bongokuhle Mnguni, recently convened a meeting with consultants, contractors and the Municipal Project Management Unit.
The gathering was aimed to review the progress of ongoing municipal projects, ensuring that the municipality remains on track to deliver essential services to the community.
The meeting provided a platform for contractors to share their challenges and discuss how the municipality can offer support. This open dialogue was seen as crucial in fostering collaboration and identifying potential solutions to obstacles that may hinder project implementation.
The Project Management Unit also presented insights into their role in assisting contractors and highlighted the challenges they face in this regard. By acknowledging these challenges, the municipality said that it can work towards creating a more conducive environment for project implementation.
To ensure that projects align with the municipality’s goals and objectives, oversight visits will be scheduled in order to monitor progress.
In light of the state of the town, many residents have taken to social media to voice their concern over the deplorable state of the Newcastle. Once known as one of the cleanest towns in KwaZulu-Natal, in recent years has fallen into a state of decay with ongoing sewer issues, potholes, non- functioning street lights and overgrown grass.
With messages and videos flooding local social media groups, the general consensus is that many fear that Newcastle is on a path of no return, with the current administration remaining silent regarding the current threat of 33 mining applications that will not only the destroy scenic beauty of the town but also have a huge impact on the eco-system, has left many questioning whether the Newcastle Municipality is in favor of the mines.
Two of the proposed mines is said to be targeted on municipal land that had been previously planned for low cost housing. According to information from an anonymous source, and who is also attempting to spread awareness on social media in a bid to save the town, said that the Siyahlala-La housing project will be directly impacted should the mines be approved, meaning that many will face the prospect of be displaced.
Other issues which are plaguing motorists is the current state of the roads.
“The state of our roads throughout the town is absolutely horrendous. The municipality has money to spend millions on Career Expo’s , new vehicles for refuse ,yet they cannot fix our roads. It is also causing a huge safety hazard, one of which is on Boundary Road near a pre-school where parents and learners have to cross the road. I would not even call them potholes ,but rather craters. Motorists have to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid hitting these potholes. Our mayor is silent, the town is flooding when it rains, our once beautiful Trim Park is riddled with the stench of sewerage. Something needs to be done,” said the irate resident who preferred to remain anonymous.
Spotlight On Newcastle reached out to the Newcastle Municipality regarding the state of the roads, according to the communications Department, the matter will be escalated to the Roads and Stormwater Department.
What are your thoughts on this story? Do you have any solutions to make Newcastle beautiful again? Drop a comment, tell us how you feel, we would love to hear from you!
What about the potholes in Drakensberg and Amathys. Amethyst is like a death wish road. It’s one crater after the other. Cars don’t know where to drive in Amarhys they push oncoming traffic to the field ir sidewalk I order to skip the potholes. And opposite those flats they are building in Amathys/Jade is a stink that is extremely bad. Yet we pay rates and taxes.
The officials in charge of our Municipality are ALL useless…..
With regards the budget;
Why are items that have been budgeted for and approved not ring fenced that will prevent that allocation being used for something else. If paint was budgeted for the repainting of road lanes etc. it must only be used for this purpose. The same with regards to repairing potholes, garden services, storm water drains and sewer, etc.
The next concern is what the municipal personnel do when there is no money to carry out all of the above services, yet they get their monthly cheques. They get accustomed to not working.
Another concern is the overtime work scheduled after hours and weekends.