By Nangamso Mabindla
21 May 2008

DRIVEN by a passion for development and transformation, Buffalo City's portfolio head for engineering services, Luntu Bobo, is proud of the achievements his department has made in this financial year.

Bobo understands his duty to the people of Buffalo City. "The important thing is that I was put in this position by the people of this city; this was due to my passion for development and transformation within our country."

Speaking about its successes, he says the department has managed to spend all the money from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant in the current financial year. "We have spent about R10-million of the R21-million for the Ward 18 Water project; that will feed water to wards in the Ncera and Kidds Beach area. And the Bufferstrip sanitation sub-project is nearing completion. We are really proud of this. We have also completed the Homeleigh Halt Reservoir in Nompumelelo."

Another flagship project for the directorate is the R50-million Quenera Wastewater Treatment Works, which is set to be completed in the next 18 months.

"We are also busy with the Quenera development programme, where we are building a four-lane road; this will cost some R50-million because we will have to buy privately owned land to complete [it]," Bobo adds.

"This road is being built to complement the development happening in Gonubie - a group of businessmen [is building a hospital] in that area - and, as the municipality, we want to support them in their efforts to bring development into the city."

The municipality has erected new street lights on Settler's Way, the road that runs from the airport through Westbank to the central business district. Street lights were also put up along the Esplanade, making it safer at night.

Challenges
Turning his attention to some of the challenges facing the municipality, Bobo says that sanitation is one of the major concerns. "We need to build about 69 000 toilets in Buffalo City, especially in the rural areas. This is a challenge because we need money for that, but we don't have enough. However, though we have to overcome this challenge, we also need to focus on other service delivery areas as well."

Water loss is another challenge. Although overall water loss has been reduced, there are still concerns in areas like Duncan Village and Mdantsane. The City would like to have a budget dedicated to dealing with this specific issue in the next financial year.

"Electricity vandalism is also a challenge that we need to deal with and we need our communities to assist us in this fight. We also have to fight copper pipe theft and deferred maintenance."

With over 300 rural villages in the municipal area, the City also needs to improve road infrastructure in those areas.

"As part of the mayoral projects, we have spent about R5-million fixing roads in some of our rural areas. We have also improved electricity infrastructure in Gompo and have put streetlights in Zwelitsha and Sweetwaters in King William's Town," Bobo says.

Looking to some of the goals for the next financial year, he explains that the directorate would like to increase spending on sanitation, build more roads and improve infrastructure to support all developments in the city.

"We will also see more delivery in Mdantsane, where we will be improving the quality of roads in each of the 17 zones that make up Mdantsane. We also want to pilot a project where we train plumbers in Mdantsane so that they can work on helping us reduce water loss in the township."

Another focus area is the transformation of the department; already the City appointed its first historically disadvantaged general manager for roads and projects early this year. "We do not just want to employ people because of the colour of their skin; we want to employ competent individuals who will take the city forward."