Sucking the life out of Deneysville residents
DENEYSVILLE – Following an article published in the Vaalweekblad June 20-26th, private vendors who were sucking French drains in Deneysville, were prohibited from doing so for June while council actioned new tariffs for sucking and dumping effluent at the revamped municipal plant in Refengkgotso.
The moratorium aimed to formalise the licensing of legitimate vendors, practices and procedures.
However, just the opposite occurred. According to residents a backlash of alleged bribery was recorded in a media release by councillor Lucas Fisher.
Furthermore, 'approved service providers' were allegedly lured into double deals with 'rogue vendors'.
The vendors allegedly 'hijacked' community contracts; intercepted council-approved, service providers' trucks, and bought off contracts.
This meant that the needy households and businesses who welcomed a reduction in tariffs ended up being blocked from taking up the council's offer!
Dr Diao Ramabitsa, head of the Metsimaholo Technical Department, reacted to this by attempting to formalise temporary licences towards the end of June.
'Interested businesses must approach the municipal offices in Deneysville for assistance and payment arrangements,' says Ramabitsa.
In the meantime, the council-approved, private service provider, who was supposed to operate exclusively at the Refengkgotso sewer plant, allegedly rented out his vehicle during June for R714 at a time to at least one unauthorised vendor.
This left the unsuspecting homeowners paying exorbitant amounts for sewer suction based on their earlier contracts with illegal vendors, while that vendor paid the council directly and signed off on the loads sucked.
'The residents have access to municipal-approved rates for removal of septic tanks, and they should be mindful of what other businesses are charging following the huge reduction of tariffs for residential septic tank removals, says Ramabitsa.
'We decided to allow any business to operate as long as they pay for dumping the sewage at our infrastructure.'
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