This was an excellent discussion with Elrick van Aswegen, the longest surviving politician in Knysna. He’s currently the Chairperson of the Section 80 Finance Committee. I joked that he’s a dinosaur… not because he’s becoming extinct but because of how tough dinosaurs had to be to survive.

This offers some insight into what’s happening in our scandal plagued local government…

KNYSNA RAN R12-MILLION INTO THE RED LAST MONTH

Van Aswegen is concerned about the hundreds of millions Knysna owes in loans. He raises the little known fact that Knysna was, last month, R12-million in the red. He disagrees that Knysna, again, took a loan to fill the hole. He says that we need to live within our means.

KNYSNA SERVICE CRISES

He considers our biggest challenge to be the removal of our rubbish. Several municipalities are affected by Mosgas stating that they will no longer be burning our waste. A one year extension has been gained but we’re failing to make sufficient plan. A major part of the problem is that Knysna Municipality doesn’t have the funds to contribute towards a new plant. We also don’t seem to be using this as serious motivation to becoming a greener town. Van Aswegen expects the problem to cause rates to double.

With regards the current free water allowance being cut in half to all expect the “indigent” population, he says that we don’t even have an indigent list. He considers that to be the next disaster because there are far more people in need of free water than those on the list.

He considers there to be a serious problem with regards billing of services.

CLEAN AUDITS, STAFF CRISIS, THE MAYOR, ME & MORE TOPICS…

It’s an informative discussion that i encourage you to listen to.

Other topics include the questionable clean audit, supply chain management, the current staff crisis in the Knysna Municipality, those that should be applauded, Municipal Manager Grant Easton, Mike Hampton (me), the need for experienced councillors and the acceptance of criticism.

He bemoans those councillors who sit in Council doing nothing for 5 years and states, “I didn’t become a Councillor to become popular.”

I very much appreciated his answer when i asked him what he would do if he became Executive Mayor.

You can discover that answer and more by listening to the audio recording on Soundcloud or, if your browser permits, pushing Play below.

You can comment on my Facebook.

PS: There were repairs happening in the office next door but, for the most part, the recording is good.