Nelson Mandela Bay’s fleet management failures are leaving municipal vehicles at the mercy of thieves.
Councillors have warned that lax security, crumbling depots and missing tracking systems are exposing millions of rand worth of public assets to abuse and vandalism.
On Thursday, councillors discussed the metro’s fleet management during a roads and transport committee meeting.
According to the report, the city’s fleet register is being manually updated to reflect the actual number of vehicles and, so far, 651 vehicles have been captured.
The report states that tracking devices have been installed to date on 851 of the 1,100 vehicles.
“The vehicle tracking system has proven to be effective in recovering hijacked vehicles and providing vehicle movement reports to the directorates on request,” the report states.
DA councillor Ingrid van Wyk said the situation was improving but raised concerns about the municipality’s vehicle tracking system.
“The report says only 851 vehicles out of the 1,100 have actually been fitted.
“I think in our previous meeting we did ask the acting executive director to even withhold fuel for those vehicles to ensure that the vehicle is brought back for checking.
“I don’t think we need to reiterate. We can’t have municipal vehicles being used for private use, to travel to East London [KuGompo City], or Kouga or for shopping.
“It cannot continue, so we need to ensure that the tracking system is dealt with,” Van Wyk said.
DA councillor Rano Kayser said the fleet was not where council wanted it to be but noted there was progress.
“In this report, there are two things: one is the condition of the workshops.
“It is something that we have raised since last year … we even went to the extent of saying, if the department of labour can go in there, the workshop will be closed because in terms of the occupational health and safety risk, it’s a mess.
“The main concern is about our cars that are being vandalised in our depots, which might result in irregular expenditure.
“A car is booked in for a radiator. It stays there for a month because workshops are not secure, the radiator is gone, the battery is gone, the system is gone, and so forth.
“So you double your expense, and your turnaround time on maintenance will be much longer.
“If you look in the fleet report, it says we have about 1,100 in the fleet. Now imagine 10% is in for repairs.
“Our vehicles are at risk. Our workshop is not a conducive work environment.
“Let’s make a decision to say money must be made available with immediate effect … so that our depots are fenced, our cars are safe, and our workshops are in a conducive working environment,” Kayser said.
Responding to the comments, fleet management deputy director Mbulelo Velemani told councillors that an item had been prepared for a budget request to fence the metro’s depots.
“The item was actually talking about what the councillors are talking about.
“If all depots can be safe and secure, at least we’ll be seeing the job we’re doing as fleet management.
“The report is there, but it still needs the executive director to look at it, because we’re having break-ins every week at Deal Party and at Diaz Road.”
Roads and transport political head Yolisa Pali said she visited the Deal Party depot in June, saying it needed to be upgraded.
“When we arrived there, we agreed that the buildings of the Deal Party need to be started afresh,” Pali said.
“It is old. It will need a lot of money to refurbish.
“If you go to Deal Party, it’s got old trucks that we cannot fix. Maybe we need an item that will identify those old trucks so that we can scrap them.
“Because if you go there, you will think that some of these trucks are there to be fixed and there is no way you are going to be utilizing them,” Pali said.
Acting executive director Givon van Eyck said there was a huge problem with facilities management.
“We will engage the facilities. They do not have a phasing contract in place, and I know there is a facilities contract, which is still under procurement.
“If we do have money, we might have to reprioritise ... as a department and ensure that some of the funding becomes available ... to fleet.”
Pali said departments were now buying their own cars, celebrating these purchases.
Pali also said two trucks were stolen from the municipality.
There are 93 vacancies at present across repairs and maintenance, artisans, drivers and tyre attendants.
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