TOTT 2 September 2021

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2 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 2 September 2021 TALK OF THE TOW NDeputy ministers assess RO plantQFS’s Ndlovu explains the processesTK MTIKIDeputy ministers of water andsanitation David Mahlobo andDikeledi Magadzi visited PortAlfred on Wednesday to monitorprogress of the RO plant.Quality Filtrations Systems’representative Musawenkosi Ndlovugave a briefing of how the RO plantwo r k s .She said the focus was onsustainability and the quality of waterprovided to residents.Ndlovu said water was beingextracted from the Kowie River about1.4km from the site.From the extraction point, the wateris pumped into a pump station situatedCRIMEB R I E FSThe Multi Security control roomreceived a call from a client inFrancolin Road, at 9.55am onTuesday August 24 when an intruderwas seen on site. The premises waschecked and found to be locked andsecure. A person walking in thestreet was asked to leave the area.At 10.10am that day the MultiSecurity control room received acall from client in Becker Streetrequesting response as someonewas sleeping on the porch and theclient was unsure if the man wasalive. A response officer met up withthe client on site, and discoveredthe trespasser was a homeless man,but they managed to remove himand he left the premises.Later on Tuesday, at 3.46pm theMulti Security control roomreceived a message from a CBDbusiness reporting a man whowalked into the shop and tried tobuy items with a fake R100 note.The man ran towards StandardBank in Main Street.The response officer patrolledthe CBD area but found no sign ofthe man.On Southwell Road at 5.26pm boththe SAPS and Multi Security werecalled for backup on site, as aperson had been stabbed, and thesuspect was on site.At 6.47pm A Multi Security officerreported that there were peoplemaking a fire at the soccer field. FireControl and the SAPS werecontacted at 6.49pm and the firewas extinguished.At 5.41am on Wednesday August25 the Multi Security control room¿29 Miles St, Port Alfred PO Box 2871, Port Alfred, 6170 046 624 4356 / Fax: 046 624 2293 Chiara Carter, chiarac@dispatch.co.za Jon Houzet, houzetj@talkofthetown.co.za Anneli Hanstein, hansteina@arena.africa Chris van Heerden, vanheerdenc@arena.africaĂůŬŽŌŚĞŽŶĐŽĂnext to the river. When the waterr e a ch e d the RO site, any solid matterwas removed by a screen, she said.“From the screen it goes to thebuffer tank and from the buffer tank tothe ultrafiltration.“The ultrafiltration is the critical partbecause on the other side there isreverse osmosis which is verye x p e n s ive .“Ultrafiltration removes the bacteriaor anything that can make you sick. Itgets removed at the ultrafiltration.“The water from the ultrafiltration, ifit’s not salty, you can actually drink itbecause all the bacteria and the thingsthat can make you sick gets removedthere.“From the ultrafiltration the waterreceived an alarm from MasonicStreet and a break in was confirmed.The Multi Security control roominformed the owner and the localSAPS.On Biscay Road at 4.53pm a clientphoned in and requested armedresponse as they had caughtsomeone shoplifting. The SAPS alsoattended. It was reported that allwas under control and no case wasopened.On Beach Crescent at 9.13pm aclient reported on WhatsApp thatthere had just been a beggar at theirpremises but he had left. It wasreported that the man was wearingblack pants. A response officerpatrolled the area and reported nosuspicious person.At 1.44pm the Multi Securitycontrol room was alerted tosomeone standing close to the fenceat a property in Pike Lane. Theresponse officer dispatched reportedit was the gardener working at thepremises.On Monday August 30 on MentoneRoad at 10.08pm the Multi SecurityControl room received an alert of amale waking towards MentoneRoad. The response officerdispatched reported no onesuspicious in the area.Also on Monday at 4.43pm theMulti Security Control Roomreceived an alarm signal from theOld Nature Reserve and theresponse officer reported there wasan open door on site. The premiseswas checked but nothing appearedto be missing. A guard was placedon site as per the client’s request.ĂůŬŽĨŚĞŽŶΛĂůŬŽŌŚĞŽŶĞĐĂůŬŽĨŚĞŽŶŶĚůĂŵďĞTalk of the Town subscribes to the Code of Ethics and Conduct for South African Printand Online Media that prescribes news that is truthful, accurate, fair and balanced.If we don’t live up to the Code, within 20 days of the date of publication of the material,please contact the Public Advocate at 011 484 3612, fax: 011 4843619. You can also¿khanyim@ombudsman.org.za or lodge a complaint on ourwebsite: www.presscouncil.org.zagoes to a buffer tank and only then itcan go through reverse osmosis wh e r esalt gets removed.“We use high pressure there toseparate salt from the water and thefinal water gets to the final water tank.“But because some minerals wouldhave been removed during this wholeprocess, to make it taste fine and tobalance the chemistry there is astabilisation process where we stabiliseall the chemistry,” she said.R E P R E S E N TAT I O NNdlambe gives answers onRO plant concernsJON HOUZETIt took a month, butNdlambe Municipalityhas answered residentMike Varela’squestions about theseawater andwastewater reverseosmosis (SWRO andWWRO) plantprojects.The municipalityadmitted it had nobackup generators forthe RO plants andpumps to preventshutdowns duringpower outages orloadshedding. It said itwas looking at theviability of installingsuch generators, but itwould have asignificant capital andoperational cost.“QFS indicated thatUPS’s have beeninstalled whichprotects the plant(critical components)against damage duringpower outages,” themunicipality stated.The municipalitysaid it took 30 minutesto an hour for the ROplant to restart andreach capacity outputafter a shutdown, withwater productionincreasing graduallyover this time.“RO plants shouldnot be stoppedu n p l a n n e d ,” themunicipality said.“With loadsheddingschedules known,damage can bem i t i g a t e d .”As for the bestestimate for ROproduction underloadshedding, themunicipality said: “Th eplant is designed toproduce 2Ml/d and3Ml/d respectivelywithin a 20hr cycle.Production willtherefore depend onthe duration of theloadshedding. With aloadshedding scenariowhere power outage ispredictable, we askedQFS to look at whetherthe maintenance andcleaning can coincidewith the power outagesto minimise thed ow n t i m e .”On the topic ofmunicipal waterdeliveries to privateindividuals during thewater crisis, themunicipality said: “In asituation where anindividual householdorders water they payfor that water. It is notnew, this has beenhappening even beforethe crisis.”Free water wasprovided in communaltanks placed instrategic areas, themunicipality said.One of Varela’smost critical points wasabout contractedoutput for the 3ML/dayWWRO plant. He said:After this stage, the water getspumped out to the municipal reservoir.Commenting on the processes, shesaid: “It’s not just a matter of gettingwater through the processes and gettingit to the other side.”She added that the wastewatersection had a similar process, butincluded additional stages like anoxidation process.She assured deputy ministerMahlobo that it was a tried and tested“It remains my strongsuspicion that oursewage plant neverconsistently (if ever)had the requiredthroughput [of sewage]to deliver thecontracted yield [ofpotable water]. Pleaseprovide me with dataand calculations toconvince meo t h e r w i s e .”The municipality’sresponse was: “Th e3ML/day plant is notonly taking intoaccount currentdemand, but alsoallows for growth,development and otherplanned projects.”The municipalitygave three scenariosbased on 70% WWROplant efficiency.• In 2018, productwater was projected tobe 2.1 ML/day.• C u r r e n t l y,dependent onavailability of waterfrom Sarel Haywardand the borehole field,product water wasestimated to be about1.5 ML/day (onlyWWRO).• A futureprojection is to reachthe contracted outputof 3ML/day (onlyWWRO).“These percentagesare due to increase asdevelopments areconnected to thewaterborne sewers y s t e m ,” themunicipality said.The municipalitydenied that only twoout of 11 sewage pumpstations were working,and that no sewagewas reaching thesewage plant.The municipalitysaid the daily flowreadings of sewagethrough the sewageplant was 0.5Ml/day,“based on manualmeasurements byQFS”.Asked by Varela ifthe SWRO plantinstalled by QFS wasthe same plant that wasrejected by the City ofCape Town after beinginstalled in theharbour, because itcould not handlethe dirty harbourwater, the municipalitysaid no, but it admittedsome components ofthat plant had beenused, such as thea b s t ra c t i o npumpstation, initialscreen and tanks.“But the cleaningprocesses are new. Theplant produces waterthat meets thenational drinkingwater quality. This hasbeen tested by anindependentl a b o ra t o r y,” themunicipality assured.Varela asked thereason for theextended period of low24 Hours: 0861 046 046Office Hours: (046) 624 3708WHEN GOING OUT OR TO TOWN DO NOT CARRY UNNECESSARYDOCUMENTS OR PROPERTY WITH YOU THAT CAN BE STOLENprocess that had been used for the pastten years in other areas.After Ndlovu’s briefing, the officialsmade a site tour.While acknowledging more workwa s still to be done to finalise theprocesses, Mahlobo said he was happyabout the progress he witnessed.He further asked that allstakeholders like community membersbe informed of the kind of water theywould be drinking.ARCHERY ACHIEVERS: FourPort Alfred High School pupils,from left, Scott Elliott, LianaPotgieter, Alistair Purdon andPieter du Plessis will representEastern Cape archery team inthe forthcomingInterprovinicial ArcheryCompetition. Congratulatingthem is principal Nigel Adams,who is very proud of theirsuccess in these challengingtimesoutput from the SWROplant since it wentonline.The municipalityresponded: “There isunexpectedly fastblockage of the UF[ u l t ra f i l t ra t i o n ]membranes whichdoes not seem to washoff properly with thecleaning regimesimplemented to date.Samples of the matterhave been sent tolaboratories and themembrane specialist toidentify what it is.Once identified, theroot cause can befound and addressed.”After lookingthrough themunicipality’s answers,Varela said: “Th eanswers in partconfirmed someassumptions whileappearing to refutesome reports such asno sewage currentlyflowing through theplant. It is also notedthat while they said it isuntrue that only two ofthe town's 11 sewagepumpstations wereworking, they did notprovide figures of theactual situation.”He added: “Usingthe S30A – wh e t h e r2018 or 2020 – tofacilitate a process thatcannot address noralleviate saidemergency within thetimeframe of thewaiver, appears to bean abuse of theemergency process.“I understand thatthe S30A is anemergency waiver, thatsuspends the EIArequirements for listedactivities during theduration of the waiverp e r i o d .”
TALK OF THE TOWN 2 September 2021 Advertising & Newsdesk: (046) 624-4356 Find us on Facebook 3Candidate for job feels cheatedNjibane says she was next in line for post after person withdrew from QFS process controller postTK MTIKIAdisheartened candidate for a jobadvertised by Ndlambe Municipality,Sweetness Njibane, feels she was cheatedout of the position.The municipality oversaw the appointment ofa process controller for Quality Filtrations Systems(QFS), its contractor on the RO plant project.Njibane, who said QFS was looking for sixcandidates, found out that she was number sevenon the list of those who were interviewed, justmissing the cut.However, she said when one of the successfulcandidates pulled out, she was dismayed that thejob was given to someone else who did not meetthe requirements stated in the advertisement.A frustrated Njibane asserted that she had therequired qualifications and experience and haddone well in the assessment interview on July 6.“On July 6 we were about 34 or 35 shortlistedcandidates in that interview and [anothercandidate known to Njibane] was not part of it.“They were looking for six candidates and Ibecame number seven according to theinformation of invigilator, Unathi Nonzube, whois a human resource manager at the municipality,”Njibane said.“So automatically I should have been the onereplacing [the candidate who withdrew].“Secondly, the advertisement stated that itrequired that applicants must be Amatola WaterBoard former students and I studied with all thosestudents in 2016 and [the person who eventuallygot the job] was not part of them,” she said.Njibane said she told Nonzube that the personwho got the job was not even one of thecandidates who were interviewed.“I told him to check his register because hewas an invigilator. This is daylight robbery,” shesaid.“I do not understand how QFS considered[said person] to be a replacement because she isabout 44 or 45 years old and I am 36 years.“Maybe it’s because she is working for them asa community liaison officer and her contract endson August 31.”Njibane said the person who eventually gotthe job was expected to start working as a processcontroller on September 1 for a duration of threeye a r s .She said the other five shortlisted candidateshad started working on August 3.Njibane said among her credentials was a❝This isdaylightro b b e r y.Further Education and Training Certificate inWater and Wastewater Treatment Process ControlSupervision NQF Level 4, a National Certificate inWater and Wastewater Treatment ProcessOperations NQF Level 2 and Water andWastewater Treatment Process Operations NQFLevel 2.According to Njibane, when Nonzube heardfrom her that the candidate who withdrew haddecided not to honour her contract, he sent anemail to a QFS official suggesting that Njibane bea replacement because she was the seventh bestcandidate on the list.However, a response came back from QFSsaying they had another replacement.Attempts to get comment from municipalspokesperson Cecil Mbolekwa were notsuccessful.Trading Hours: Mon - Sat: 7:30am - 6pmSundays & Public Holidays: 7:30am - 4pmTops: Mon - Thurs: 10am - 6pmTHURSDAYS ARE PENSIONER’S DAYValid: 2 - 5 September 2021 | E&OETel: 046 648 1023 | While stocks lastSPAR Woof 8kgR129.99 eachHot Cross BunsR15.99 eachBroccoli/CauliflowerHeads2 FOR R30QUALIFICATIONS ON DISPLAY: Adisheartened candidate for a job advertisedby Ndlambe Municipality, Sweetness Njibanefeels overlooked despite possessing therequired qualifications Picture: TK MTIKISPAR Beef Rump /Sirloin SteakSPAR Toilet Tissue1Ply 9’sSunlight Liquid750mlR119.99 per kg R21.99 each R29.99 eachROSEHILLNEMATOTrading Hours: Mon – Sat: 7:30am - 6pm Sundays 8am - 4pmTops: Mon - Thurs: 10am - 6pmValid: 2 - 5 September 2021 | E&OE | Tel: 046 624 3542 | www.rosehillsuperspar.co.zaTrading Hours: Mon – Sat: 7am - 7pm Sundays: 7:30am - 5pmTops: Mon - Thurs: 10am - 6pmValid: 2 - 5 September 2021 | E&OE | Tel: 046 940 0383 | While stocks lastWishing everyonea very happyOupa BoereworsPotatoes 7kgRhodes Braai Relish410g1kg Kellogg'sCornflakesR74.99 p/kg R54.99 each 2 FOR R20 R54.99 eachBokomo RusksR29.99 eachSunlight Regular 3kgR59.99 eachSPRINGB-well Omega 3 Oil 2ltR45.99 eachTsitsikamma Still Alpen Nutrific 900gWater 5lt2 FOR R28 R39.99 eachRhodes Peach Slices3 FOR R30Veg Combo: Onions 3kg,Potatoes 3kg & Carrots 3kgClover Numel 6x1ltR75.99 p/combo R60.00 each
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TOTT 2 September 2021

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