Better communication needed for public participation

I AM an informed resident of the City of uMhlathuze, who regularly attends IDP and budget meetings.

What disappoints me is when ratepayers are treated disrespectfully as if we do not understand legislation.

Public participation meetings are very important and notices of these meetings must be advertised at least 14 days before the meeting. If it is an emergency meeting, then announcements via speakers must be made in suburbs so that the public is aware of the meeting.

How is it possible that the municipality can advertise a meeting in the media a day after it was held? How were we supposed to know about the meeting and even attend it?

I have purchased the Zululand Observer over the past 15 years and have always read the notices for meetings. I had a copy of every ZO for the past two months and I did not see any notice about the budget meeting at the eSikhaleni College on 23 April at 4pm.

Then I managed to get a copy of another free newspaper in the area on Thursday, which is not available where I live. I only read the paper because I went into the Richards Bay CBD on Thursday. I then noticed the advert for a budget meeting on 23 April (Wednesday) published on 24 April (Thursday).

Do you really think that we are so uninformed in eSikhaleni that we will not even question this?

I may not live in an urban area, but it does not mean that we should be treated in this manner. This goes against legislation related to public participation at local government level.

I then see another meeting scheduled for the Richards Bay Civic Centre on Thursday, 24 April published on the same Thursday. I only got this paper at 4pm, so how can one so quickly attend a budget meeting the same afternoon at 5pm?

Authorities must then not accuse the public of showing little interest in such meetings.

I request that the municipality properly advertise their notices timeously in all local newspapers. I did not see the notice of the eSikhaleni meeting in the Zululand Observer.

How can I have a say in the budget when I’m not given a platform to properly express my views?

S ZIKHALI