We Are At Your Service
Municipal services are what we experience and depend on in our personal space. They help us to cook our evening meals, study for exams, run our business, run our baths, keep our homes clean and our gardens green. They keep us and our families connected, safe and hygienic, and help us to sleep peacefully at night. When one or more of these services are interrupted, we feel it close to the bone. In this month’s Vars we go behind the scenes and catch up with some of those who have been providing these essential basic services. We talk to André Kowalewski , our water services expert, about the Municipality’s telemetric system – a smart water network system that monitors operations at Drakenstein’s dams, reservoirs, boreholes and water treatment plants. He explains to Vars what a smart water network is and the benefits associated with it. This is a prime example of how Drakenstein Municipality invests in the latest high-tech technology to keep on rendering first-rate services to our residents. The Municipality prioritises excellent and reliable service delivery in its 2022/23 annual budget, which the Executive Mayor tabled at the Council meeting in May 2022. We unpack this year’s budget allocations for service delivery areas such as electricity, roads and stormwater, water and sanitation, waste management, and public safety. We find out about the plumbing service that the Municipality has appointed specifically to fix our indigent consumers’ water leaks , and how these consumers can report these leaks. In our interview with Derick Damons , our Chief Fire Officer, we focus on another essential service. Unpacking his career, Derick talks about what drives firefighters to put their lives on the line and risk everything to battle blazes and keep us safe. “This was a calling. I did not choose the career, it chose me.” Similarly, looking after the informal trading sector is a calling and something Moses Mlangeni , the Municipality’s Manager for Economic Growth, is very passionate about. He accompanies Vars as we visit New Street, the central hub for informal trading in Paarl, and take a glance at the services this division renders. The Municipality acknowledges the importance of an enabled, well-supported, and dynamic informal sector in the Drakenstein economy.
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VARS | July
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