Warwick Bruce Chapman

In March 2010, a year and a half ago, Cllr Tex Collins and I were assured that the last major technical hurdle in the completion of the new Revenue Management System was the data migration from the old Coins system to the new LOGOsoft RMS system. We were at the time advised that this process was almost complete, and they indeed demonstrated by pulling my Metro Bill. We were assured that the next challenges related only to testing, training and rollout preparation.

Last week, ahead of this council meeting, I emailed, phoned and SMSed the department head responsible for this project and asked him to make time available for me to get an update on the status of the project. I have received no reply. This is a repeat of my experience in 2010 as I attempted to prepare for the last time RMS/COINS appeared on the agenda. Again, it would appear that a municipal official is actively avoiding speaking to a councillor about RMS.

We are now being asked, for the first time as long as I have been a councillor, to approve an amount for the maintenance of COINS, which until now I believed was maintained in-house. This amount is significant, around 15% of last tranche of R77m we were forced to approve for the completion of RMS, and would not be necessary had we completed our RMS project on budget and on schedule.

In October 2010, I tabled a Notice of Motion[1], which required that “a monthly report be tabled at each Council meeting henceforth on progress towards the completion of the development and implementation of the system.”

The Motion was passed unanimously but no such reports have appeared on the agenda of any council meeting since then. As such I will write to the Speaker after this meeting requiring that this matter be comprehensively reported on at the next council meeting failing which the matter will be escalated to the MEC: COGTA.

Given the critical nature of the system to the proper functioning of the municipality’s financial system, we are forced to support this vote, but we do it under protest. I shall motivate to my colleagues that we setup a task team to urgently investigate the specific details pertaining to the RMS project and its progress. It is time now, after nearly 8 years and almost R500m that we complete and implement this project and start realising a return on investment for our ratepayers.

[1] 20101014-motion-rms

Dear Editor

At the 5 September council meeting, the chair of the Human Settlements and Infrastructure committee will answer formal questions I have tabled pertaining to cable theft in eThekwini and whether the action the municipality is taking to combat this serious problem is sufficient.

In the 2007/8 financial year cable theft losses for eThekwini were reported by the then Minister for Local Government to be R36-million.  In the City of Cape Town over the same period, cable theft losses were recoprted at R496 800. Just a year earlier, in the 2006/7 financial year, cable theft losses in the City of Cape Town were recorded at R22-million.

This represent a 44-fold decrease in losses for the City of Cape Town from one financial year to the next.

What could possible explain such a dramatic decline in just one year?  The answer is simply that the council took a policy decision not to tolerate cable theft any longer and to invest in combatting the crime.  During that financial year, Cape Town established a task team known as the Copperheads to combat the theft of copper and other metals in the City.

In my opinion, even if it costs us R30million per year to prevent R30million of cable theft, the measures are still worthwhile as they reduce loss of productivity and costly damage to equipment caused by the outages and surges which result from cable theft.  Cable theft can be combatted by this municipality, all we need is the political will to do it properly.

– Cllr Warwick Chapman
Spokesperson: Infrastructure

Herewith a list of all ward and PR councillors in the eThekwini Municipality and their contact numbers and, where available, email addresses.

Click here for a PDF of the details: 20110803-councillors-details

The maps of all the eThekwini wards are available from this blog to assist in identifying which areas falls into each ward.

Speed and alcohol are the two major causes of fatal accidents on our roads, and the combination of the two are a risk too many people take on a daily basis. In Glenwood in particular, but in the rest of eThekwini in general, motorists have lost their fear of being caught speeding. As a result we’re seeing more frequent occurrences of vehicles speeding on busy residential roads and late at night racing at many times the speed limit.

The tragic deaths of 6 students in Glenwood during May, when their driver lost control and hit a tree at well over twice the speed limit, is one terrifying example of speeding on our residential roads. Many more less serious accidents occur, knocking down walls, fences and light poles and posing a serious risk to other road users.

Myself and my predecessor have been inundated with requests for speedhumps along roads in the Glenwood area. However it neither practical to install speed humps on these longs arterial roads, nor does the council have the budget.

It is my opinion that the only solution to the problem of speeding in residential areas is regular enforcement of speed limits. Driver behaviour will only be changed when every regular driver on our roads is constantly worried about whether they will be caught for speeding or other traffic violations such as jumping robots or stop streets.

A month ago I requested that Metro Police place a focus on speed enforcement on Clark Rd eastbound between Cato and Manning Rds, and requested further that trapping be frequent and random, during the day and especially at night. I further requested a schedule of speed enforcement activities on other roads in Glenwood, not limited to Frere/Bartle and Bulwer/Nicolson roads.

Metro Police have reverted that the complaint is being investigated. I have since escalated this issue to the Director of Specialised Enforcement and will continue to push Metro Police for action.

Enquiries:
Cllr Warwick Chapman
083 7797 094
ward33@ethekwini.org

I was emailed these photos today of the proposed dugout port in south Durban on the site of the old Durban International Airport.  I cannot verify if they are reliable or where they can from but they are exciting to look at!