PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Stability, unity and acknowledging the future role municipal staff will play in addressing some of the challenges in the communities of Bitou.
This was the message mayor Jessica Kamkam and her executive delivered last week to council employees at a meeting called by the new political leadership.
Kamkam told those present at the Piesang Valley community centre: "We need to use the resources we have to the best of our ability."
Five meetings in all have been held at the community centre as part of a staff engagement programme with all the directorates in the municipality.
Monday's meeting was attended by Kamkam, the deputy mayor Nokuzola Kolwapi, speaker Mavis Busakwe, MPAC chairman Renecia Willemse and municipal manager Mbulelo Memani.
The staff attending were from the office of the municipal manager and directorate of planning and development.
'Commitment to work together'
"We reconfirmed to the staff our vision of unity and stability in Bitou municipality. We acknowledged the role each department plays within service delivery, and to give them our commitment, as a political leadership, to work together so that we can service all communities in Bitou, equally and fairly and that we can be an inclusive municipality," said Kamkam.
Kolwapi said the message from the majority councillors now running Bitou was "well received".
"You could see from the faces of the people and their responses when we gave them an opportuniy to speak," said Kolwapi.
'Overall knowledge'
While political leaderships could change anytime, the municipality's staff would "always be there to serve us and also to carry the intellectual property of the town".
"We will be guided by them: they are the ones who have got the overall knowledge of the municipality… we might come and go, but they will always be there. (We tried) to assure them about their futures," said Kolwapi.
Kamkam added that many people said they were "glad we took the time to engage with them and they feel much more motivated now".
"They acknowledged and appreciated the opportunity to engage on a departmental level - normally there was a big staff meeting.
'Understand challenges'
"(We are) trying to engage with the departments and understand the challenges the departments face and plan accordingly," said Kamkam.
Kolwapi said one of the issues raised was "unfairness" in certain departments with discrimination being raised as an issue, that should be addressed.
"We will definitely attend to that," she said. Kamkam said if she could give the public a message it is "that we really need to appreciate the area we live in".
"We need to appreciate the standards of service delivery within Bitou municipality, because I do think we have very committed staff.
'Service standard high'
"We have got staff who work extremely long hours, we've got members of staff who sometimes have to face difficult situations with limited resources.
"We acknowledge there might be incidents where staff members don't give their best, but in general our service delivery standard is very high and we are planning to keep that up."
She added that it would be good for members of the public, as well, to acknowledge good service where they encounter it.
"If they experience good service delivery, we would appreciate them to acknowledge that.
"And if there are any grievances we would appreciate it if the relevant managers in the affected departments are contacted - and also the municipal manager - so that we can address any issues that there might be," said Kamkam.
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