EAST London is sliding down a slippery slope – service delivery in the city is hitting new lows, and getting worse.

Buffalo City Municipality does not have a municipal manager nor a chief financial officer, and the engineering services directorate is desperately under- resourced.

As a result, service delivery in BCM is poor and ratepayers are getting increasingly frustrated.

The situation is exacerbated by the continual infighting taking place between the two factions of ANC councillors in BCM.

The regional ANC recently obtained a court order suspending the appointment of the new municipal manager.

Jobs for pals is what it is all about!

Meanwhile, ratepayers suffer while BCM is in a state of inertia and unable to function effectively and provide adequate services to its ratepayers.

In addition, infrastructural expenditure is largely on hold while BCM fights court actions.

Then there are the daily reports of corruption in government , wasteful expenditure by government officials , and the ever-lengthening government gravy train being boarded by high-ranking government and quasi-government officials at every stop .

Yet President Zuma travels around the country telling all and sundry his government will eliminate corruption and wasteful expenditure by government officials, and will in future appoint senior officials on the basis of merit and competency to improve service delivery.

But this is all hot air – very little has changed since the Mbeki government.

When will the people who voted for the ANC in the general election, especially those from the rural areas, realise this? – B Knight, Nahoon

Five-star insult to the poor

ISN’T it amazing how becoming a member of Parliament or a Cabinet minister suddenly makes you aware of how self-important you are?

Police minister Nathi Mthetwa suddenly realises staying in a five-star hotel is not good enough for his ministerial status.

He needs to stay in the presidential suite, no matter what it’s going to cost the country.

At a time when the poorer voters who were promised a better life must endure poor service delivery, poverty, joblessness and homelessness, the Zuma government suddenly realises new commissioner Bheki Cele needs to be upgraded to a R3.3 million home.

Self-important ministers serve themselves first, while the people who voted them in to service (not power) will have to live on the margins for much longer. – Mike Fraser, via e-mail

Thanks for the memories

AS ONE of the skydiving grannies, I would like to extend my thanks and congratulations to the organising committee of the Border Aviation Club and the sponsors for making the Elvin Extreme Airshow so memorable. Thanks also to the Harley club and the MG drivers, who made the three of us feel like royalty in the parade before our jump. Special thanks to the spectators, who were so supportive and encouraging with their applause.

My gratitude goes to the chairman of the border aviation club Wayne Munro, my tandem master Joos Vos, and the media, who showed such an interest in “the grannies”.

I trust, that my team mates Pat Keyter and Charlotte Henman and I will remain friends and that we will skydive together again. – Granola Rathbone, via e-mail

What ever next?

I WAS notified by Intec that my study material had been dispatched to me on September 3.

After a couple of weeks I approached the post office in Gonubie and asked them to check and see if there was a parcel for me. I was informed that I required a tracking number.

Intec were unable to supply the tracking number as it was sent via normal post. I was informed I would have to wait until I received the notification from the post office.

Potholes are filled over the weekends and trash is collected over the weekend (surely the workers are being paid overtime?).

Now the post is being delivered to manholes. I wonder what will be next? – Bev, Gonubie

Back to church for Boesak

ALLAN Boesak is playing games with politics as he doesn’t know where he wants to be.

He has given reasons for jumping ship from Cope to the ANC again, but the same things are happening in the ANC. Everybody is fighting for power and money.

Boesak should leave politics and serve his church .

That way he won’t be encouraged to get up to any of these things that a lot of our politicians are getting up to. – Brian, via e-mail

Beware the handbook

ANYBODY who has read George Orwell’s Animal Farm will find a similarity between what happened in the story and the current events surrounding the purchasing of expensive cars for ministers, and so on.

I find it peculiar that people have spent decades in jail and died to rid the country of an unequal government system only to be told cars are purchased in terms of the rules of the old ministerial handbook.

Please, ministers, we are not stupid.

When you break down a system you break down the whole system. You do not hang on to the nice bits.

Next they might tell us it states in the ministerial handbook that they can purchase houses for themselves and their families using government funds. Maybe that ministerial handbook says we must all call them baas and that they can hit us with a sjambok whenever they feel like it. – Morne Windvogel, via e-mail

A face to the name, please

I DO so enjoy reading Laura Miti’s column on a Tuesday morning. (Sorry about her break-ins, a sign of the times, I guess).

Would it be possible to include a photo of her sometime so we can put a face to the name as you do for some of the other journalists? – Des Beurlen, Gonubie

We’ll have a chat to Laura Miti and see if she is willing. – Editor