You would think that, because of its vandalism crisis, the Nelson Mandela Bay metro would have jumped at the generous offer by organised business to “adopt” some of its substations.
But no, the metro has still not signed the service level agreement — meant to ensure substations are properly protected — more than a month after the mayoral committee approved the item.
The adopt-a-substation initiative will — should it ever be approved — help address the vandalism problem which has left large parts of the metro in darkness, costing the city millions of rand.
Installing CCTV cameras and beefing up security measures at the adopted substations would stop thieves, who have vandalised substations and stripped them of cables, in their tracks.
But the agreement is being held up at the municipality’s legal department — which is notorious for holding on to contracts for months at a time.
Doing due diligence and ensuring contracts are legally sound is good — but not signing the agreement because the legal services director is on sick leave is a concern.
The legal department cannot continue operating at a snail’s pace or else already frustrated businesses might take their investments elsewhere — something the Bay can ill afford.
The red tape has to be addressed as a matter of urgency. And if it’s a capacity issue, that also needs to be handled.
By failing to sign the agreement the metro is effectively looking a gift horse in the mouth.
With no financial implications for the city, the logical thing to ask would have been “where do we sign?” — after verifying the legality of the agreement, of course.
It is simply not good enough that free help has not been accepted simply because someone is on sick leave.
While the red tape and bureaucracy continues, substations which the metro has failed dismally to protect continue to be at the mercy of criminals.
Hopefully, organised business’s extended helping hand will be accepted, soon.
Businesses have to be commended for taking practical steps to resolve some of the problems bedevilling the metro.
At the end of the day, they also need a consistent water and electricity supply.
HeraldLIVE