POACHING, illegal dumps and the general refurbishment of some of Port Alfred’s more dilapidated buildings were the main thrusts of the Ndlambe municipal executive committee (exco) meeting, held at the council chambers on Monday.
Poaching
“Poaching is rife in the area,” said Ndlambe mayor Phindile Faxi. “And the meat is not for personal consumption. There is a big market out there for game meat.”
Faxi was responding to questions of what could be done regarding poaching in the area. He and his team will attempt to establish policies to limit poaching.
Dumps
Faxi described a trip he made from Bathurst toward Grahamstown on the R67 and saw two illegal dump sites, one on the main road and another just off the road.
“This is unacceptable,” he said. The problems associated with illegal dumping have been an issue for some time, and exacerbated by the recent closure of the Marselle/Bushman’s River dump.
“People have complained that they cannot be expected to take their rubbish down to the Port Alfred dump, but this is the only one currently in operation,” explained municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni.
The problem remains unresolved at this point.
Refurbishment
Reutilisation of municipally-owned buildings should be carried out, according to Faxi.
“Some of the buildings along the river are in a very bad state,” he said. “We have vagrants living in these buildings and we need to do something about it.”
Faxi charged Dumezweni to place “No Dumping” signs in applicable places.
Branding Ndlambe
Faxi wanted to know why the logos and other decal in the tourism report did not correspond to those used by the municipality.
“Don’t we fund the Sunshine Coast Tourism?” asked Faxi. “The activities of the LED (local economic development) section and Sunshine Coast Tourism should be more aligned.”
Dumezweni replied that Ndlambe was not the only source of funding that Sunshine Coast Tourism received. Faxi said that visitors and others saw the report issued by tourism and that there should be an effort to use the same logo to reflect professionalism.
HIV/Aids programme
The Local Aids Council (LAC) is currently being revived in order to offer better services in terms of medicines and counselling to the community.
The launch of the new LAC will be announced in due time.
