THE appointment of a senior manager in the uMhlathuze Municipality‘s Department of Town Planning has severely disrupted service delivery.
According to a letter received from a local consulting engineer ‘on behalf of engineers and architects who are fed-up with delays in relaxation applications and consents’, the manager, Nonsundu Ndonga, has ‘since July 2015 not signed special consent and relaxation applications because we were told a few changes were being made to forms.
‘This has dragged on for over eight months, causing a backlog of over 150 applications.
The writer, known to the Zululand Observer, claims Ndonga’s inability to make decisions has cost the building environment millions in loss of income.
He also accuses her of not being available to professionals or ratepayers for meetings, refusing to make appointments and deferring matters to her professional planner.
‘People are choosing to revamp their homes rather than sell because of escalating interest rates and expenses, and are opting for relaxation of side spaces.
‘They are more than entitled to do this within the guidelines given by the municipality for architects to comply with.’
The writer claims Ndonga is failing ratepayers and residents, while experienced employees familiar with local procedures are shoved into positions where they have no decision-making powers.
‘We cannot help but wonder to what extent the City’s political appointments have caused our hard earned money to go to waste.
‘We now witness experienced employee Dwayne Baker, who was fired, now return as a contractor to do the new sub-stations for the Aquadene housing extension.
‘Did not firing him cost ratepayers millions of Rands in court fees?’
The writer further alleges that outside appointments were made while experienced in-house personnel were not considered for top positions.
Municipal response
‘There is a growing trend of building on top of omnibus servitudes or relaxing building lines without authorisation
The post of the Deputy Municipal Manager (DMM) City Development was advertised in the national newspapers.
The DMM is delegated by Council to approve a certain category of planning applications in her capacity as a registered Town and Regional Planner with the South African Council for Planners (SACPLAN).
This is in line with the Planning Profession Act, 2002.
When Ms Ndonga assumed her duties, she established that person/s not duly authorised by Council were approving applications.
This anomaly was picked up three months after assuming her duties when she was presented with a report stating the number of applications approved.
On enquiring, she established a misnomer in the workflows of departments.
It cannot be true that she caused this delay since July 2015 because she only assumed duties on 1 August and only picked up the misnomer in October when the first quarter (July- September 2015) report was presented to her.
In many instances Council incurred costs because applications were approved without due diligence, such that Council at times were required to fix someone’s wall or swimming pool built on-top of municipal infrastructure.
There is a growing trend of building on top of omnibus servitudes or relaxing building lines without authorisation and coming to the municipality for approval afterwards.
Some do not declare illegal structures already built or run businesses without getting the necessary approvals.
When such is detected, delays in processing the application will creep in as the officials will first have to deal with contraventions.
The turn-around time in attending to applications in the DMMs office is three days, and in cases of complicated matters where additional information is required, up to five days.
At present there are no files in her in tray.
We note with concern the growing tendency to run applications from department to department, putting undue pressure on officials dealing with the application.
Processing of applications cannot be fast-tracked without due diligence.
It is also not factually correct that when Ms Ndonga is not available, people are referred to a junior official.
The second in line under Ms Ndonga is Mr Marinus van Rooijen and all queries related to the applications are referred to him for further delegation as he sees fit.
