N2 Toll Booths

I am pleased that the ANC councillors and city manager Dr. Michael Sutcliffe are in agreement with the DA councillors in the eThekwini Municipal council with regards to the proposed southern toll booth on the N2 at Isipingo. I think that this proposed toll booth is ill-conceived and is going to impact negatively on commuters and residents.

There are many reasons why this new toll booth should be opposed by all concerned including the fact that so many of the poorest of the poor live in that area, and a daily commute to Durban and back is likely to cost them R16 a day.

Other than the surface streets and the R102 there is no real alternate route for those not wishing to use the new toll booth. The quality of these surface streets and the R102, I will refer to them as alternate routes for the purpose of clarity, are going to suffer increasing vehicle running costs.

The vehicles using these alternative routes will not just be cars but will include trucks; one only has to look at the M13 to see what happens to the road when large trucks avoiding the toll booth use these alternate routes that were not designed for these heavy vehicles.

There is a good possibility that this will adversely affect property values and may even lead to the areas along these routes being rezoned commercial.

Damage to road infrastructure on alternative routes, particularly the R102, is expected to increase by about R3.2-million by 2020. There is also an estimate that the potential increase in accidents on the alternate routes could amount from R360 million to R720 million between the years 2010 and 2020.

If you assume that 30% of the vehicles using the N2 do so for business purposes, that means that the toll fees alone will cost businesses R130,000 – R165,000 daily, and who do you think is ultimately going to pay that cost?…you and me, the consumer.

One report estimates that residents and workers will lose between R96-million and R102-million in disposable income. If households are shifting their spending to pay for these tolls it is definitely going to affect the economy.

As a footnote, I can’t help but wonder how the ANC feels now that the vast majority, including them, are opposed to this toll booth but SANRAL seems to be just trying to steam roll it through irrespective of the opposition. It reminds me a little of the street renaming where the majority that opposed the renaming were ignored and the ANC in council just steam rolled it through.

The state of the Prince Mshiyeni Hospital is a disgrace

The state of the Prince Mshiyeni Hospital is a disgrace. The latest was the discovery of a decomposing female corpse in the public toilet and the alleged disappearance of a baby’s body from the hospital mortuary. There is a critical shortage of beds in the hospital caused by the effects of HIV / Aids, which forces patients to wait on stretchers and chairs in the hallways of the hospital.

This is a hospital that serves the poorest of the poor who suffer in silence and it is time someone spoke up for those people. We should demand an investigation into why the hospital has been allowed to deteriorate into such a state and those at the provincial level, this is a provincial hospital, who allowed this to occur should be terminated from their positions with immediate effect, whether they are politicians or bureaucrats. There needs to be consequences for this type of neglect. They are obviously not doing their jobs because if there was adequate oversight this would not be happening. These officials at provincial level need to get out of their offices and start taking care of the people who elected them to do just that.

The same could be said for any number of government hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal including Addington Hospital on Durban’s beach front.

Stop the corruption!

I was pleased to hear the news recently that the Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceha stated that The Municipal Systems Amendment Bill 2010 that was approved by the cabinet last week would combat corruption in local government. He also stated that he would discuss the possible extension of the ban on part-time work to the entire public service with Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi.

The only problem I have with the bill is that it needs to include all the 200 + councillors in the city council. They should not be permitted to have jobs and businesses outside of their council work and it should also state that individuals contesting an election for ward councilor should be required by law to live in the ward they are contesting, if that person is so interested in that ward that they want to represent it in the council, then that ward should be good enough for them to live in. Obviously this won’t apply to PR councilors who are deployed to any ward at the digression of their party.

I urge Minister Sicelo Shiceha to move on this at the earliest opportunity so as to have it in place before the 2011 Municipal elections