Warwick Bruce Chapman

Please find below a communique from ACSA regarding the pending switchover of operations from Durban International Airport in the South of Durban to the new King Shaka International Airport in the North.

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Please advise travellers that on 01 May 2010 the new King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) becomes operational for all Durban-bound air travel. The existing Durban International Airport will be decommissioned; although it may be used for a temporary period during the Soccer World Cup event if required.

All flights into Durban up to and including Friday 30 April 2010 will operate from the current airport. From 01 May 2010, all flights will officially operate out of the new airport which is located approximately 35 kilometers north of the city centre.
Please factor in extra time to get to and from KSIA and bear in mind that if you are travelling in one direction before 30 April and back after 01 May, that you may need a shuttle between the two airports.

SHUTTLE SERVICE

ACSA will provide a shuttle transfer between King Shaka International Airport (KSIA) and Durban International Airport (DIA) which will cover the cost for passengers that leave cars at DIA from 01 May for one week only.
Thereafter transportation between both airports will be for the passenger’s account and they will have to arrange transfers themselves.

Source:
Jacqueline Hooijberg
ACSA Durban Airport Manager

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

Please pass this on to good people who want to make a difference on the ground.

Being a City or Town Councillor means more than just being one of the “bosses” of that town, attending meetings and deciding how to spend the available funds; it also means using your skills and resources to solve problems on the ground by supporting, motivating and monitoring municipal officials and ensuring work is done.

Councillors of the years gone by were pure policy makers.  The reality of the current job description of a Councillor is far more wide ranging and much of the time involves ensuring things which should “just happen” actually get done.  Councillors who work hard and manage to keep a constructive and positive approach to their jobs will find they get great satisfaction out of a job where they know they are making a significant positive difference to their community and municipality each day.

Having said that, you must be tough and have somewhat of a rhino skin.  The ANC are rude, extremely racist at times, and openly abuse their power to the benefit of their own.  As the DA continues to make inroads into the traditional ANC support-base, the ANC is becoming more confrontational and, basically, taking the DA more seriously.

Be prepared to stand up for what is right and just.  And be prepared to lose.  In the end, however, our efforts never go in vain because we are the conscience that the ANC has dispensed with, and until we are able to govern in towns and provinces across South Africa, our role is thus of critical importance.

Fight the good fight.  Become a DA Councillor.

– Warwick Chapman, Cllr – eThekwini

The Speaker – eThekwini Council
Councillor James Nxumalo
City Hall
DURBAN

12 November 2009

Dear Mr Speaker

QUESTION IN TERMS OF SECTION 17 OF THE RULES OF ORDER

During the last questions on the issue of the R6.5 million fifaworldcup.durban.gov.za information portal at the July 2009 council meeting, Cllr Peer answered in respect of the first question that “in May 2008 the Municipality advertised for the appointment of a panel of consultants to assist the information services section to deliver on its various projects. From this panel, a quote system was used to obtain services for various projects, including the preparation of a new website.”

In respect of the provisions of the eThekwini Supply Chain Management Policy:

1. Can it be confirmed that the “quote system” mentioned above refers to the procedures outlined in sections 16-18 relating to procurement through quotations; and
1a. if not, which legal provisions were utilised to select and appoint the service provider?

17 (a) makes a mandatory provision requiring that “quotations must be obtained in writing from at least three different providers whose names appear on the list of accredited prospective providers of the municipality” and 17 (b) allows for quotations to be “obtained from providers not listed, provided that such providers meet the listing”.

2. If the quote system was used, were quotations received from at least three different providers as required in 17 (a); and
2a. if so, can a report be provided in terms of the records required by 17(d) showing all the “potential providers and their written quotations”?
2b. if not, in terms of 17(c) what were the reasons approved by the chief financial officer for not securing the required three quotations?

18 (a) stipulates that all requirements in excess of R30000 are “advertised for at least seven days on the website and an official notice board of the municipality”.

2c. was the required advertising as described above done in respect of this project?

18 (b) requires that “when using the list of accredited prospective providers the accounting officer must promote ongoing competition amongst providers by inviting providers to submit quotations on a rotation basis”

2d. what were the reasons for using the same provider of web development services used by the City previously instead of rotating as required above?

19 (1) requires that for “goods and services above a transaction value of R200 000 (VAT included) and long term contracts may only be procured through a competitive bidding process”

3. If the quote system was indeed used, then considering the mandatory provision outlined above, why was the quote system used to select the service provider for a project with a value of R6.5 million?

4. Was the scope of work upon which bidding companies prepared their quotation formally defined; and
4a. if so, then can the original scope documentation be provided to me?
4b. if not, why not?

Yours faithfully,

Councillor Warwick Chapman
Democratic Alliance