It is suspicious that Nelson Mandela Bay municipal vehicles have been left to rot while millions of rand were paid to contractors for the same services.
DA councillor Noxolo Mafumana hit the nail on the head when she made this pronouncement during a public health committee meeting on Tuesday.
Mafumana is correct, because the municipality may have to spend R92m to hire refuse trucks in the next financial year as its own ageing fleet rots away in depots, with most vehicles needing repairs and tyres.
But the municipality has proposed a recapitalisation plan that could result in 42 compactors being bought over three years.
This would entail R61.5m being spent in the 2023/2024 financial year, R61.5m in 2024/2025 and R49.2m in 2025/2026.
The municipality needs at least 42 vehicles on the roads daily to collect refuse across the city.
This will first have to be endorsed by the council.
But here is the thing — even if the council agrees to this plan, it is unlikely to materialise.
There is too much at stake for all those companies involved in the supply of refuse vehicles to the metro.
Take for example an incident in 2019.
A similar scenario played out, but this time a national company would have taken over the supply of refuse trucks to the city.
This quickly led to a refuse strike, with small businesses believing they had been pushed aside by the municipality in favour of a big national firm.
The proposed deal was quickly canned as suddenly gaps in the supply chain process were found after it was reported on by The Herald.
All this time, rubbish started piling up everywhere in the city as the smaller businesses refused to work.
The municipality was basically forced to drop the deal by those who that lease out vehicles to collect our refuse.
While small businesses depend on the work to make a living, the recapitalisation plan still makes sense and will save millions of rand in the long run.
But it is unlikely that we will see the metro owning its own fleet to keep the city clean any time soon.
HeraldLIVE