Brace for higher bills and tougher restrictions

The Table View Ratepayers Association had noted residents concerns about taxi drivers flouting traffic laws in the area.

It’s time to brace for higher water bills under the tougher water restrictions introduced at the start of the month.

Ward 113 councillor Dr Joy McCarthy told the 50-odd people at the Table View Ratepayers’ Association (TVRA) annual general meeting last week that they could expect to pay almost 20% more for water.

The Level 4 restrictions started on June 1. They ban the use of municipal drinking water for all outside and non-essential use.

“Because we are in such a dire state the mayor has recommended that we use less than 100 litres of water per person per day per household,” said Dr McCarthy.

Well-point water should be used sparingly and she encouraged residents to only do so on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Dr McCarthy suggested residents showerwhile standing in a bucket to collect water to flush their toilets.

Someone from the floor said he ran two guest houses and was being “severely punished” because of his business.

Dr McCarthy said he could apply for an exemption as could owners oflaundromats and car washes.

She said it was good that Premier Helen Zille had declared the Western Cape a disaster area last month (“Avoiding the day the taps run dry”, Tabletalk, May 24) as it meant funds could be prioritised to support initiatives to prevent the taps running dry, that included drilling into the Table Mountain aquifer.

However, Dr Mc-
Carthy admitted to being “hesitant” about that plan because if the water, which had accumulated underground for thousands of years, was used recklessly, no one knew how long it would take for it to be replaced.

A resident asked why Cape Town had Level 4 water restrictions while other municipalities, such as Stellenbosch and the Overberg, had less stringent restrictions. Dr McCarthy said those areas were smaller and closer to other water supplies.

Dr McCarthy said she had not yet spent her ward allocation budget because hers was a new ward and the budget could not be allocated on time.

She now has R850000 from her unspent budget plus a R850000 from the new budget. The money, she said, would be spent on, among other things, fencing, weed spraying and cleaning the area aroundLeibrandt van Niekerk Hall, which had become a hang-out forvagrants. A portion would also be also be spent on more licence plate recognition cameras.

Those already installed, she said, were a “ring of steel” that hadyielded major success in many criminal cases.

TVRA chairwoman Mandy Da Matta said the association had notedresidents’ concerns about taxi drivers flouting traffic laws in the area.

She introduced Andile Peters, CEO of Kidrogen, a vehicle operating company, who said having law enforcement officers posted in areas such as Bayside Mall was not sustainable as the lawless driving continued when the officers’ shifts ended.

Mr Peters said he had met recently with the Dunoon Taxi Association, which had told him that some of the offending taxis came from outside areas, such as Khayelitsha, and that the association, itself, could not be blamed for those drivers’ actions. Hesaid a strong taxi association needed to be introduced once again to control the taxis.

Ms Da Matta also introduced 20-year-old Shaqueel Sonnie to the TVRA. Mr Sonnie will be heading up the youth portfolio which represents people under the age of 30.

Mr Sonnie said he intended to “bridge the gap between older and younger people”

Ms Da Matta also gave a list of activities TVRAmembers had been involved in, including a “green drive” where they had collected 1 000kg of waste.