Warwick Bruce Chapman

As a result of the resignation of Terence Palmer as a councillor, a municipal by-election will be held to replace him in Ward 10 (Kloof/Gillits).

Details are as follows:

Note: A by-election will be held in Newcastle on the same day.

Voter Registration
Continued registration at Hillcrest Sizakala Centre, 22 Delamore Road 07h30 to 15h30 weekdays (excl. public holidays) until 25 March only. Alternatively, voters can register at IEC offices in 75 Winder Street (08h30 to 17h00 weekdays).

Cllr Gill Noyce
The Democratic Alliance has nominated PR Councillor Gill Noyce to stand in this election. Cllr Gill Noyce can be contacted on 082 800 0943 or email on gnoyce@zamail.co.za

What is a by-election?
Each Ward in the City (eThekwini) is represented by a councilor on the City Council. In the event that a sitting councilor must be replaced, a by-election is held by the IEC which allows residents of that ward to choose who will represent them on the City Council.

Who can vote in the Ward 10 by-election on May 5 2010?
Anyone who is a registered voter AND is registered in one of the following six voting stations:
Kloof Town Hall
Gillitts Community Hall
Kloof High School
Hillcrest Library Activities Room
Kloof Tennis Club
New Life Family Church

Note: Voting stations are open from 7am to 9pm on 5 May 2010

How can I check if I am registered in one of the above stations?
You can check if and where you are registered using the following methods:
• SMS your ID number to 32810
• Call the IEC on 0800 11 8000
• Use the IEC website and type in your ID number: https://www.elections.org.za/AmRegister/AmRegister.aspx

Can the DA remind me to go and vote on 5 May?
Yes, send your street address, email address, ID number (so we do not have duplicated records in our database) and cell number to com2@kzn.da.org.za and we will ensure you are reminded on election day!

The ANC chose to vote down two DA proposals which had won the support of the MF, IFP and other mintor parties that seeked to urgently intervene in resolving dangerous safety concerns which affect the lives of eThekwini residents.

“Death Road”
Cllrs Macpherson and De Boer proposed a motion which would have seen urgent measures taken place to improve the safety of “Death Road” on the M4 Ruth First highway between Broadway and Virginia in Durban North. The proposal suggested barriers be installed to separate the lanes and Metro Police establish a permanent unit to monitor that road. The ANC dismissed the motion with contempt suggesting the proposers were not following protocol despite the numerous efforts by councillors with City officials to see action taken.

The Deputy Mayor went as far as suggesting the DA Cllrs were trying to further protect their “leafy suburbs” while other parts of the City were in a significantly worse condition. DA Cllr Heinz De Boer clarified that “if the Mayor chooses to admit other parts of the City are in a poor state, that is his prerogative and shows up the lack of action by the City and councillors in those area, but as the Councillors responsible for Durban North and Umhlanga, we are doing our jobs as demanded by our communities.”

“Street Lights”
Also dispatched with a stunning display of arrogance and personal attacks was the motion proposed by Cllrs Chapman and Lindsay seeking that a task team be setup comprising councillors and officials from the Metro Electricity Department to urgently address the high number of faulty street lights in the City. Lindsay contended that despite 6 months of trying to get the Electricity department to fix over 200 faulty lights in the Pinetown New Germany area, little or no action had been taken.

Chapman explained that with the FIFA World Cup coming up and noting the serious impact that poor lighting has on crime, the DA wished to see councillors working together with Electricity Department officials to resolve urgent lighting and safety issues ahead of the big event. Again the ANC, through Cllr Reddy, used protocol as their excuse to sideline this constructive proposal.

Chapman, referring to the treatment of both proposals, said that “the ANC chose cheap politics over urgently needed service delivery in what is indicative of the attitude which has seen the gradual decline in support for the ruling party and spawned service delivery protests all over the country.”

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org | http://warwickchapman.com

Coming out of the weekend ANC NEC meeting has been some supposedly tough talk from President Zuma and Jeff Radebe about the performance of local government officials and councillors. In 2009, the ANC correctly diagnosed their cadre deployment on steroids programme as being responsible for much of the poor performance at a local government level. Now in 2010, they have made a further startling revelation: what is needed is “implementation, implementation, implementation!” and monitoring to ensure it is taking place.

So what are they going to do about it? If you guessed “Summit” or Indaba”, you’re correct. They’re going to call a summit to discuss how to achieve this. Once again, this means more hot air and less getting down to the jobs we all need to, including those jobs which involve making sure other people are doing their jobs. So aside from the efforts of the few who do work hard and the opposition constantly applying pressure on the ANC to perform, the average man in the street is still going to be waiting for service delivery.

Local Government Elections are just around the corner in 2011. If our Government will not change their crooked and sluggish ways, voters must give them some food for thought at the polls and force them to change, or be changed. –Cllr Warwick Chapman

UPDATE: This work was featured in the Sunday Tribune 24 January 2010. See the article reproduced below.

The Democratic Alliance presented 53 counter proposals for the 103 proposed ward demarcation changes to the eThekwini Municipal Manager on Friday 15 January.

An example of our proposals: Comparison of Demarcation Proposals for Central Durban from MDB and DA.

Having analysed the proposals in detail over the past month, we are firmly of the belief that the determination of ward boundaries has been more than generous to the ruling party since the original 2000 demarcations. During the last 16 years the demarcation process has split communities, produced oddly shaped wards and traversed physical boundaries that separate communities.

In line with the Municipal Demarcation Board’s legal mandate to “avoid as far as possible the fragmentation of communities”, our proposals seek to reverse the fragmentation caused by the previous changes and the current proposals.

Service delivery at local government level is the major complaint of South African citizens. The time has come for Government to live up to its promises, and optimising service delivery at a ward level is an important basic intervention we can make now.

The DA has thus proposed that the following fragmented communities (split across multiple wards) are once again represented by a single ward councillor: Chesterville, Westville, Clermont, Pinetown, Kwandengezi, Amanzimtoti, Isipingo, Umlazi (Q), Glenwood, Cato Manor, Overport, Bayview, Newlands East, Newlands West, Durban North, Umhlanga and Verulam.

Further proposals have been submitted which, apart from unifying fragmented communities, have tried to honour natural boundaries, avoid road major divisions and compact ward boundaries. We have also endeavoured to separate the rural and urban elements of wards, as their service delivery requirements differ substantially.

The Municipal Manager, having received and acknowledged our counter-proposals, will be required to inform the MDB that there is no general consensus on the proposals within the Municipality and thus request that the MDB run a workshop in eThekwini later this year. The provisional date for the workshop is May 2010, however the DA will attempt to engage in bilateral or multilateral consultation with the ANC and other parties in order to reach general consensus before the workshop deadline.

Anyone wishing to find out more information about this process or the DA’s proposals should contact:
Cllr Warwick Chapman on 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org
Cllr Geoff Pullan 083 695 9190 | geoffpullan@iafrica.com

Download the PDF document containing all of the proposals:
2011-da-wdc-counter-proposals.pdf

Sunday Tribune, 24 January 2010

Note:  This letter was sent on Friday 18 December and I received a blanket response to it on Tuesday 22 December which is listed below.

The Chairman
Municipal Demarcation Board
304 Orient Street
Arcadia
Pretoria
0083

18 December, 2009

Mr Mahlangu

Reference: DEADLINE FOR CONSENSUS ON 2011 MUNICIPAL WARDS

The press statement in The Mercury of Wednesday December 16 2009 issued by you states that today, December 18, is the deadline by which all municipalities are to indicate to the Municipal Demarcation Board whether consensus has been reached on the issue of ward delimitation for the 2011 Local Government Elections.

The Democratic Alliance first became aware that the new maps were available on 23 November per chance by visiting the MDB website.  The first time we were officially informed of this process by the Municipal Manager of the eThekwini Municipality was at an emergency meeting held on Tuesday after a front page article in The Mercury brought to the fore the lack of attention being given to this process.

At this meeting, Dr Sutcliffe stated unequivocally that the deadline of 18 December was unrealistic and that he had notified you of this concern.  He then instructed all political parties present to provide their input on this process by the 15 January 2010.  All our attempts to confirm this deadline extension with the MDB have been refuted by the officials with whom we have spoken.

The Democratic Alliance has worked hard over the past 2-3 weeks to analyse and understand the extensive demarcation proposals for the 2011 Local Government Elections.  It appears that around two-thirds of the 100 existing wards have been changed and we most certainly have fundamental objections to several of those proposals.

We believe that many of the proposed changes are not going to support the services delivery imperatives of this Government and some of them split communities across wards.  Additionally, we have proposals relating to the 3 additional wards to ensure these three wards are as compliant with the spirit of demarcation legislation as possible while still keeping community and service delivery concerns at the fore.

As a result of both the late availability of the proposals and the lack of consultation by the Municipality, we are concerned that local communities and other stakeholders have not had sufficient opportunity to understand and provide feedback on the proposed changes.

In light of the above, we thus request:
1. you register the objection of the Democratic Alliance in eThekwini to both:
a. the proposed ward delimitation proposals; and
b. the lack of any consultation and communication undertaken by the eThekwini Municipal Manager with respect to this process; and
2. clarification of the deadline for consensus as it applies to eThekwini.

The Democratic Alliance will provide constructive counter proposals at the MDB3 Workshop when it is held in eThekwini during May 2010 (according to the calendar provided with Circular no. 6).

Yours faithfully

Cllr Warwick Bruce Chapman
Demarcation Coordinator: Democratic Alliance eThekwini Caucus

—

Response from MDB 22 December, 2009

Dear Municipal Managers

I wish to convey the MDB’s appreciation to the majority of KZN municipalities that managed to submit to the Board either form MDB1 or MDB2 or MDB3 before or on the closing date of 18 December 2009.

The Board would like to urge the other municipalities that have not submitted a form as yet, to do so urgently.

As you are aware – and as indicated in Circular 6/2009 – the Board will commence with its MDB3 visits to municipalities by February 2010.

Should you be able to submit the outstanding forms by, at the latest, 15 January 2010, we might be able to consider and map the proposals before the scheduled MDB3 meetings.

Should you intend not to submit a form please inform me urgently by email. The MDB’s proposals will then be gazetted for objections.

The MDB appreciates your contributions, and wishes you all the best for the Festive Season and for 2010.

Regards
Robert Willemse
Municipal Demarcation Board