By Yolanda Palezweni
Just more than 40 municipal vehicles damaged due to negligent driving have been left dumped at the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s Deal Party depot since the beginning of 2022 — with officials unable to fix them due to a lack of documentation or accident reports.
This was revealed during an oversight visit to the depot by roads and transport political head Itumeleng Ranyele on Friday. Nelson Mandela Bay’s fleet management director, Zukile Magongo, said the vehicles included:
Eighteen from the traffic department;
Eight from the safety and security department;
Five from the metro police;
A pail truck; and
Nine refuse trucks.
Magongo said the vehicles were left standing as officials failed to produce the necessary documentation after the vehicles were damaged due to accidents.
A further 16 vehicles could possibly be written off.
“Going forward, we had made arrangements for officials to bring in the necessary documents when bringing in cars as we are not able to proceed without the reports,” he said.
Magongo said the biggest culprits were traffic officers and security officials.
The latest accident involved an official allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
We do follow-ups on the vehicles and most of the time it is viewed that fleet management is not doing their jobs.
“However, officials are failing to provide reports, and for other interventions, it would require funding as we would need personnel to visit the officials to collect the vehicles,” he said.
If repaired vehicles were not collected, they were auctioned off.
This, he said, saved the municipality money as the city would no longer be paying for insurance.
“So far, 300 vehicles have been auctioned off already.”
He said a further 480 vehicles would be auctioned off in the near future as they remained uncollected.
Safety and security acting executive director Shane Brown said every department was responsible for reporting accidents.
“The report will ascertain if the official can be held liable for damages, therefore it is each directorate’s responsibility to do this,” he said.
Councillors at the oversight visit were shocked that officials were not filing accident reports.
ANC councillor Gamalihleli Maqula proposed that all vehicles not in use be returned to the various departme
nts until officials provided the necessary documentation.It can’t be that they get away with this,” she said.
Police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu said it would be difficult to check the police’s database regarding the official allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.
The Herald reported in July that it takes the municipality’s fleet department two weeks to repair a flat tyre on a small car.
It also takes about two months to repair a refuse compactor truck and a week to fix a broken windscreen.
Adding to the department’s woes is its obsolete vehicle-monitoring system, which creates the ideal conditions for staff to abuse the city’s cars.
At the centre of the department’s challenges, Magongo said, were staff shortages and the lack of a succession plan to replace key officials when they left.
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