CHAPTER 5 RESULTS
5.3 Prospects for Extending Refuse Collection Services
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99 available to the MM. All the senior managers cited the reduction of the operating budget for waste management services in certain key areas in the current financial year as evidence of the low priority of waste management services within the MM and the scarcity of financial resources within the MM. All the senior managers interviewed were of the view that increases in equitable share grants to the MM are unlikely to result in increased allocations for waste management services given that the MM does not generally use equitable share grants for the purposes that they are intended.
The strongest indicator cited by officials that service delivery extension is unlikely to be funded by the MM in the short term is that the Waste Management Unit has been desperately motivating, without success, for a number of years to acquire new refuse collection
compactor vehicles for current service delivery needs. According to the managers
interviewed the current fleet is more than 15 years old and experiences frequent breakdowns resulting in service delivery delays, huge repair bills and the need to employ staff outside of normal working hours at overtime rates to undertake current collection services. One of the managers provided the following insight into the fleet management and overtime problems faced by the WMU; “The Msunduzi Municipality provides refuse collection services using overtime labour, some staff work two shifts a day which is illegal due to truck shortages, to date (October 2009) R5.9 million of the R8.5 million annual over time budget is finished after three months of the financial year despite repeated reports calling for the replacement of the current fleet, nothing happens, the option of renting fleet vehicles is also opposed by labour, it’s a hopeless situation”. Operational level staff from the WMU pointed out that management is unlikely to succeed in extending service delivery given how poorly they manage existing operations.
5.3.3 The MM Political Sector
All three political representatives interviewed, two from the ruling ANC and one from the official opposition, the DA, agree that a low growth scenario with regards to addressing refuse collection backlogs is most likely to occur in the next five years. All the political representatives agreed that waste management services is not a priority within the MM, that the staff responsible for waste management services are not adequately qualified to do their jobs and that in most cases the managers responsible for waste management services are political appointments who do not feel that they are accountable to councillors.
100 All of the political representatives agreed that before looking at extending refuse collection services the crisis being faced in providing existing services needed to be addressed. All the political representatives pointed out that given the difficulties experienced over a number of years in purchasing a new fleet of refuse compactor vehicles, the lack of progress in dealing with labour issues related to performance, working hours and overtime, it would be very difficult for the MM to consider extending services unless national government provided additional resources. A quotation that reflected the general views of the political
representatives interviewed on this matter was provided by one of the political
representatives: “It will be difficult to extend service delivery to new areas as we do not have trucks and staff to cover existing areas, there is also an overtime crisis in this municipality, we are forced to hire trucks to improve service delivery currently , we cannot buy trucks as we do not have the money, the Metro status will help us get more funds from national government and thus improve service delivery, if this Metro status does not happen serious service delivery problems will continue and worsen”.
5.3.4 The MM Labour Sector
Both trade union representatives expressed the opinion that service delivery is unlikely to be extended until new trucks and additional staff is employed. Both unions are also opposed to the privatisation of municipal services through outsourcing of collection services to small and medium enterprises and the rental of refuse compactors from private companies since they believe that individuals within the MM and private business people are benefitting from these options and the municipality‟s problems are not being addressed. Both representatives indicated that they had no mandate to discuss the overtime issue with external parties.
5.3.5 The Business Sector
The organised business sector indicated that the extension of collection services was unlikely to happen easily given the low priority associated with waste management services,
incompetent staff, lack of performance management systems within MM and the growing urbanisation trend.
101 5.3.6 The Regulating Authority Sector
The regulating authority representatives were concerned that despite the MM having a large budget and meeting the basic criteria of a high capacity municipality, it nonetheless had a very high refuse collection backlog, faced serious risks trying to provide the current
collection services effectively and would be unlikely to extend service delivery to new areas.
One of the regulating authority representatives commented that the WMU “had no
management skills to change the current situation and no plan to guide them to an improved situation”.
5.3.7 The Technical Expert Sector
Predictably all the technical experts felt that MM would in the short term be unable to extend refuse collection services, amongst the key factors identified that inhibit the extension of service delivery include poor leadership, conflict ridden bureaucracy, lack of capability amongst staff, low political priority for waste management issues, no fiscal commitment, lack of community protests against non delivery of waste management services and a lack of innovation amongst managers responsible for waste management within the MM.