TOTT 31 January 2019

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January 31, 2019
OPINION
W r at h
over
wate r
The prolonged water outage that
affected all of Port Alfred, including
Nemato, over the past week raised
much ire on Facebook.
Tot T ’s Facebook group was inundated
with complaints and requests for
information as to what was happening. We
provided updates as regularly as they were
received from the municipality – both from
municipal spokesman Cecil Mbolekwa and
ward 10 councillor Ray Schenk, who looked
frazzled by Sunday afternoon after fielding
hundreds of angry phone calls.
The municipality also called us to a
press briefing on Tuesday morning to
provide a more detailed explanation, which
was put online and is also our front page
stor y.
Many people were unhappy with the
municipalit y’s explanations, and some
even felt there was a more sinister agenda
at play than power outages and burst
pipes.
Some even directed their frustration at
TotT for not being able to provide hourly
updates. Please understand, we can only
report the information that is provided to
us, and our team did an excellent job in
keeping the public apprised of
developments.
This latest outage lasted up to seven
days for some unfortunate residents who
live in the highest lying areas on the east
and west bank, and as of Wednesday,
some people reported they still had no
water – even after supply had been
restored to most of the town.
The high-lying areas are always the
worst-affected because of gravity feed, and
we hope these areas get water soon, if
they have not by today.
This must rank as one of the worst water
outages ever experienced in Port Alfred, as
often the “Port Alfred flats” in the CBD
area still have water when the rest of us
don’t. This time, even the flats did not
have water.
Rainwater tanks proved invaluable over
this period, and like many, I filled buckets
to flush the toilet, wash dishes and splash
my face and underarms. But tanks quickly
run dry depending on how many people
live in a household, and it was only thanks
to the recent rainfall over a long, dry
period that we had any water at all.
Frustrated and angry residents have
expressed on Facebook that this latest
outage is the last straw for them, after a
year of frequent water shortages. There
has been a call and response for residents
to show up at the first council meeting of
the year taking place today, to make their
grievances heard.
But now that most people have water
again, we wonder if this will be followed
through, or will apathy set in again?
Jon Houzet
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Tide Guide
Kind courtesy-SA Navy
HIGH
0119 1346
0222 1436
0304 1514
0338 1546
0409 1616
0438 1645
0506 1713
0533 1739
L OW
2018 0725
2100 0825
2134 0908
2204 0944
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2326 1114
2352 1142
YOUTH VOTE: Gareth Clamp, left, and Joshua Toth encouraged all friends and acquaintances 18 years and older to go and register to vote last
weekend. They are pictured at the Boesmansriviermond town hall voting station on Saturday morning
HAVE YOUR S AY
Letters to PO Box 2871, Port Alfred - or e-mail to houzetj@tisoblackstar.co.za
This is an open forum for readers to express their opinions. However, the publishers reserve the right to shorten letters. Those printed are not necessarily the views of Talk of the Town. Although noms de plume may be used,
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Join in
prayer
for rain
This is a call to
prayer on Wednesday
February 6 at m i d d ay.
At that moment,
please stop whatever
you are doing and
spend as much time
as you need,
imploring our Father
in heaven to send us
enough rain for
sur vival.
Pray for the
farmers, the animals,
the children, and our
future. At the end,
pray your thanks for
what we will receive.
It is important that
this message is
spread far and wide,
to reach as many
people as possible,
so that they can
diarise it, announce
it, arrange for it to
happen.
Please ensure that
ministers and pastors
spread the message,
mention it at sports
clubs, meetings,
social events,
wherever you find
yourself and spread
the message!
If you are on
Facebook, use that
as well.
God bless you all!
MERYL HOWES
Emergency numbers
Port Alfred hospital – (046) 604-4000
Police station – (046) 604-2001/2
Multi-Security – (046) 624-2508
Chubb Security – (046) 624-4810
Sky Alarms – (046) 624-2806
NSRI – 082-990-5971
Electricity (a/h) - (046) 624-1111
EMS (Emergency Medical Services) – 10177
Gardmed –082-759-2134
Holistic EMS – 063-460-0042
Fire Department – (046) 624-1111
No water – do your job
We, the community of Port Alfred
are outraged by the total lack of
water in this town since last
Friday morning.
This means that we have now
been without water for four days!
This is totally unacceptable!
All citizens of SA have the right
to a supply of water from their
municipalities.
Ndlambe Municipality must be
Doctors on call needed
It is sad to think that in our little town it is nigh
impossible to find a doctor over a weekend.
I had this experience recently when someone in
severe pain was unable to find a doctor to give an
injection or even a script for a painkiller.
After exhausting all options, an ambulance was
called and the sufferer was taken to the hospital
where the place was busy, and the pain-afflicted
person had to wait about two hours to be attended
to.
Join our guild for woodworkers
To all woodworkers –
professional, hobbyists or DIY –
the Lower Albany Woodworkers
Guild (LAWG), an organisation
located in the Ndlambe area, has
a mission focused on developing
a community of woodworkers.
As a group, we meet on the first
Tuesday of the month at various
venues. Our meetings consist of a
variety of activities which include,
among others, a programme or
Cops and resident prevent fire disaster
Since National Police Day has
recently been commemorated
(January 25), a neighbour of mine
forwarded a tribute to the Kenton
Police Station that she wanted to
have published in Talk of the
To w n .
My neighbour herself was
instrumental in averting what
could have been like the Betty’s
one of the most dysfunctional
municipalities in the land.
We drive on the worst roads of
any coastal town in the country,
and have had our water cut off on
numerous occasions over the last
few weeks, always with some
lame excuse.
Well, it’s about time something
was done about this.
If you can’t do your job
speaker related to woodworking.
There is a bring-and-braai at the
end of each meeting.
We support Child Welfare, with
members making wooden toys
that are handed over to the
organisation each November.
Membership has many benefits,
not the least of which is access to
mentors who have significant
woodworking knowledge. If you
are involved in any way with
Bay disaster on January 1. If it
were not for Janet and the police,
Kenton’s Joan Muirhead Nature
Reserve may have suffered a
similar fate to that of the
Kogelberg Nature Reserve in the
Overstrand area of the Western
Cape on New Year’s day.
In that instance, a single flare
which was let off at midnight
properly, someone else must be
given the opportunity to do it.
Such incompetence should not
be tolerated, and indeed would
not be tolerated in any
municipality where workers are
accountable to the community
members.
Why should we pay rates for no
service delivery?
CHARLES KANTOR
An injection was given and the patient went
home.
Hours of suffering could have been averted if
there had been a doctor who could have been
contacted.
Is it not possible for the doctors to do calls over
the weekend – share the load among themselves for
the good of the community?
NURSING SISTER (RETIRED)
woodwork, please feel free to join
us.
For more information please
e-mail lawgwoodworkers@gmail.com
or call Brian Edwards on
073-532-3295, or Errol Parsons on
084-800-3033, or Theo Hurford on
082-894-3092 or, in the Kenton
area, Neil Stuart on
082-563-8938.
BRIAN EDWARDS, LAWG chairman
landed in the reserve.It caused a
fire that destroyed more than
5,000 hectares of vegetation, 30
houses and damaged 30 more in
the Betty’s and Pringle Bay area.
The fire led to the death of a
59-year-old woman from Pringle
Bay (TimesLive January 23 and
Cape Talk).
GLENDA WEBSTER