Eleanore Bouw-Spies gets interviewed

KNYSNA NEWS - The Knysna-Plett Herald recently interviewed Knysna mayor, Eleanore Bouw-Spies.

Full name, your ward, and your political party.

Eleanore Bouw-Spies, executive mayor; Ward 5; DA

As a councillor, which ward have you been allocated as your area of responsibility?

Ward 5 – Belvidere, Brenton-on-Sea and Lake, Buffalo Bay and Rheenendal.

How long have you been in Knysna?

I was born and raised in Knysna, making Greater Knysna my home for the past 46 years.

What are your qualifications?

I have a Bachelor of Social Science and a higher diploma in education. I have various certificates pertaining to local government.

What is your salary?

Not applicable.

Why did you decide to stand as a councillor?

Being a part of the Greater Knysna Community for all of my life, I understand the community and have a good sense of the challenges the community faces on a daily basis. Knowing that working within council would help the broader community had a great deal to do with my decision to become a councillor during 2000.

What do your duties entail?

As mayor:
The functions of the mayor are set out in the Municipal Structures Act and include the coordination of the work of the municipality.

The municipal manager is directly accountable to the mayor.

It was further my responsibility to appoint the municipal manager and heads of departments upon resolution of the council.

As mayor I must perform a ceremonial role determined by council.

The mayoral committee is my responsibility and I:

appoint the members of the mayoral committee;
delegate specific responsibilities to each member of the committee;
delegate any of the executive mayor’s powers to the respective members.

I must further:

identify the needs of the municipality and review and evaluate those needs in order of priority;
recommend to the council strategies, programmes and services to address priority needs through the integrated development plan;
recommend or determine the best way to deliver those strategies;
identify and develop criteria in terms of which progress in the implementation of the strategies and programmes can be evaluated. Evaluate progress against the key performance indicators.

It is further my duty to:

review the performance of the municipality;
monitor the management of the municipality’s administration in accordance with the directions of the municipal council;
oversee the provision of services to communities in the municipality in a sustainable manner;
ensure that regard is given to public views and report on the effect of consultation on the decisions of the council;
annually report to the council on the involvement of communities and community organisations.

As mayor I must report to the municipal council on all decisions taken by myself and perform all duties and exercise powers as delegated by the council to me.

As councillor:

I am a representative of my constituents and their immediate needs. I serve as a facilitator of my community inputs and act as a communication link between council and my Ward 5 constituents.

It is my responsibility to help monitor the performance of the municipality and therefore act as a key feedback mechanism for this monitoring.

Please explain how you juggle being mayor and also a ward councillor.

My diary is my best friend… I block off time in my diary to ensure that I physically spend time in my ward.

With the municipality being an ever-evolving entity, there are times that I am recalled from my ward to attend to urgent council matters as mayor. This usually results in me having to make up for lost time, sometimes even over weekends.

What are burning issues in your ward that need attention?

As with most wards in Knysna, currently the biggest issue in Ward 5 is housing.

As my ward has some of the poorest residents in Greater Knysna, job creation is always a challenge.

As with the rest of the world, with unemployment comes substance abuse and I am constantly looking at ways to help curb that evil.

I believe strongly that to change the world, I must start with our youth, and the swop shop in Rheenendal is proving an excellent tool. Not only are they learning the value of the environment by collecting litter, but also the value of bartering and saving.

Ward 5 has some very valuable community-driven projects, such as the swop shop, community garden and a women’s craft project.

As my ward has two Blue Flags it is of utmost importance to ensure that these and other tourist attractions remain in pristine condition.

The roads within my ward leading to these beaches really need to be maintained and their potholes fixed.

What are you proud of in your ward?

My ward is very diverse and I am extremely proud of the community spirit that exists within the various sectors.

I am further grateful for the resource that I have in the Brenton, Belvidere and Buffalo Bay ratepayers' associations.

I can always count on them to alert me to issues that need attention.

Not only does this organisation point out possible problems but works alongside me in finding a collective solution to the problem.

I am further (as mentioned before) extremely proud of the two Blue Flag beaches of Buffalo Bay and Brenton-on-Sea.

The importance of the biosphere is embraced by all within my ward, making me extremely proud of the strides we are taking in protecting our environment.

Where would you like to see improvement?

It would be fantastic if housing demands could be addressed by provincial and national government.

As mayor I would like to see the town working together to uplift our poorer community.

Greater Knysna has some of the best minds in the country living in the area. It would be wonderful if our officials and these experts could sit around the table and learn from each other. Our officials could learn best practice from these residents and the residents could learn and hear first hand of the difficulties that face local government officials.

You were elected to office in August 2016 – what have you done for your town and its people since then?

Goodness me! The answer to this question really warrants an entire article on its own. I have attached some of my achievements before the fires.

I must say that I am extremely proud of securing several partnerships that will ensure the upliftment of the entire Greater Knysna.

During my inaugural speech of 15 August I said that the proof of this new council’s delivery will be in our action. I further said that the new council can deliver a town of opportunity and that we can make this a more inclusive Greater Knysna.

I encouraged residents to attend public meetings to enable them to make first-hand informed judgments of our performance.

Within our first 100 days, a great deal was done with the intention of creating more opportunities and jobs within Greater Knysna.

The SMME development unit was streamlined, by increasing accessibility of SMME entrepreneurial support through an SMME web portal and entrepreneur ICT hub. Through a public-private partnership (PPP), more economic spaces within informal CBD areas are being developed through a container park model.

Further, I have established the SMME Connect that offers a platform for all SMMEs to connect on a regular basis, enabling them to share ideas.

Sticking with the SMMEs, the SMME incubator programme has also been established to assist emerging entrepreneurs.

A business unit survey has been undertaken with the aim to develop a reliable business database. Further, the broadband policy implementation plan to provide increased ICT accessibility has been rolled out.

In partnership with the Western Cape government and office of the premier, Cape Access e-Centres have been established in the Hornlee and the Concordia libraries.

The expanded public works programme (EPWP) policy is in place and the EPWP unit is functioning well within the municipality.

The above are just a few of the things that I achieved and this was done to create more opportunities and jobs.

We are also looking at implementing a CBD renewal strategy and a Grey Street upgrade.

Furthermore, we are boosting tourism with Brenton-on-Sea and Buffalo Bay beaches once again flying their Blue Flags high. The Thesen Islands marina was also awarded a Blue Flag for the sixth consecutive year.

There are so many great initiatives that we have that I am unable to elaborate on them all here.

In brief, we are developing a substance abuse policy, establishing a local drug action committee, are in the final stages of establishing ward committees in all 11 wards and have held comprehensive integrated development plan (IDP) public participation meetings in all 11 wards through 13 public meetings.

I am in the process of looking to establishing a satellite Home Affairs office in Knysna.

The 7 June fires really changed the course of my tenure as my focus was completely shifted to assisting the fire victims and ensuring that we received government funding to fix the extensive damage to our infrastructure and environment.

Please click on the link below to see the vast achievements pertaining to what has been done since these fires.

https://www.gardenrouterebuild.co.za/press-releases/

What do you hope to accomplish for the rest of your term?

I will be forever grateful if those partnerships mentioned earlier are transformed into tangible projects.

We are just coming out of a turbulent political time and it is my hope that Greater Knysna will once again become a town where all residents work together for the good of the town.

Knysna municipality was one of the top five municipalities during my previous tenure.

During that time we won the Town of the Year more than once. I would be over the moon if we can achieve that honour once again.

Very few towns can boast with the beauty that Greater Knysna sometimes takes for granted. So much time is wasted on bickering instead of working together to market the beauty of our town, which will improve our major economy, tourism.

Do you think you are making a difference and if so, how?

Yes, I definitely think and know that I can make a difference. It is not the first time that I occupy the mayoral chair, and have the distinct advantage of having experience on my side.

Knysna municipality, as I said before, was the best in the country when I was last mayor.

There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t achieve that once again, and that is my mission for the rest of my tenure: to lift our municipality up and ensure that possible past mistakes get rectified.

What do the town and its people mean to you?

Greater Knysna means absolutely everything to me. My parents are now retired in the area, my children go to school in the area, and my own life started and continues in Greater Knysna.

I will do everything I can to ensure that Greater Knysna prospers.

What is your opinion of the manner in which the ruling party is leading this town?

Politics is never easy. This council took over the leadership just over a year ago. Our term, although challenging, has been fulfilling, however I must mention that the 7 June fires interrupted our five-year plan.