“Whilst we are subject to mowshedding, the grass grows.”
While Colin Walker’s remark during his chairman’s report at the annual general meeting (AGM) of Friends of Constantia Valley Greenbelts last month drew laughter from those in attendance, the witticism did not detract from the seriousness of the matter.
Walker’s comment at the AGM held at Simon’s at Groot Constantia on Thursday 22 September referred to a media statement released by the City of Cape Town in August.
In it, the City shared that, “due to delays in their tender procurement process”, there would be delays in grass cutting.
The Recreation and Parks Department has 12 mowing teams (comprising of over 1 000 staff members).
Working according to maintenance schedules, these internal resources provide 40% of the capacity needed to maintain thousands of hectares of grassed community parks, road reserves, greenbelts, cemeteries and public open spaces. Service providers, appointed on a three-year cycle through tenders, are supposed to assist with the remaining 60%.
Stating that the Recreation and Parks Department was experiencing delays in this tender process; the City said that measures had been put in place to provide the service using the available capacity, “although it will be reduced (frequency of cutting) until full capacity is reinstated”.
These measures include prioritising certain areas for cutting – road reserves and high profile through routes, cemeteries, service request complaints, community parks and open spaces, undeveloped open spaces – and revising schedules and adjusting the number of cuts until the end of the year.
“This will reduce the frequency of mowing in one area but increase the total number of areas that can be serviced,” the City said.
In other words, mowshedding.
Delays in the mowing tender procurement process, however, are nothing new.
Last year, People’s Post reported how this exact problem necessitated the extension of the 2019 mowing tender contracts – awarded for areas one (North), two (East), three (Central) and four (South) – with the amended expiry date of the four tenders respectively set for April and May this year.
With time ticking on the 2019 tenders, the new one (which now incorporates all four areas) was advertised on 19 February 2021. It was projected that the tender would be awarded by February this year.
Patricia Van der Ross, the City’s Mayco member for community services and health, says the evaluation process took longer than expected.
“The bid adjudication committee award was only made on 30 May. The implementation process is delayed due to the legal matter currently underway,” she says.
The “legal matter” points to an all too familiar pattern that has emerged in the City’s tender procurement process.
As Walker explains it, once a tender is awarded, it isn’t long before there is a complaint.
“This leads to an objection, which in turn must be evaluated and adjudicated for the process of review. Often, while this time-consuming process is underway, the tender period expires, which means the City needs to re-issue the tender,” he says.
For the past six years, Walker has been drawing attention to City service delivery failures with regard to the greenbelts.
“I’m talking about core, mandated responsibilities, not fancy stuff. However, nothing changes and the situation has actually deteriorated this last year.”
He says not mowing the greenbelts results in all kind of problems such as the encroachment of alien invasives, a proliferation of ticks and the increased chance of dried seeds (especially wild oats) which drills into the soft tissue of dogs when they and their owners go for walks.
“The City has elected to outsource many of its core services in managing greenbelts. In our case, mowing and river maintenance. The point is, the City no longer has the capacity to undertake core responsibilities itself but relies on contractors,” he says.
Contractors who, he claims, are often not managed properly by the City, resulting in compromised quality.
He says not mowing the greenbelts results in all kind of problems such as the encroachment of alien invasives, a proliferation of ticks and the increased chance of dried seeds (especially wild oats) which drills into the soft tissue of dogs when they and their owners go for walks.
“The City has elected to outsource many of its core services in managing greenbelts. In our case, mowing and river maintenance. The point is, the City no longer has the capacity to undertake core responsibilities itself but relies on contractors,” he says.
Contractors who, he claims, are often not managed properly by the City, resulting in compromised quality.
Another obstacle, Walker claims, is the City’s “silo approach”.
“Vegetation management in the City comes under four different departments namely Stormwater, Environmental Management, Recreation and Parks, and Roads. These departments have designated responsibilities but they don’t have the capabilities and manpower to execute those responsibilities.”
As an example, Walker points to the removal of alien species.
“This falls to the Invasive Species Unit (ISU), which falls under the Bio Diversity branch. Here again, there is a small permanent staff but the majority are contracted people, again renewable every three years. They have a management plan and budget for proclaimed biodiversity areas and City nature reserves within the City.”
He says should one of these departments have an “alien problem”, ISU could be requested to assist. The requesting department has to foot the bill.
“If the department doesn’t have the funds, then the aliens continue to proliferate unchecked, leading to a much-compounded problem later on.”
Walker says this is where Friends’ efforts come in, using their small team to do ad hoc maintenance work.
“We often plug the gap at our expense. We are becoming overwhelmed with the maintenance aspect which is not our core function.”
When People’s Post asked Van der Ross where the mowing tender process was currently at, she said: “The City is unable to provide details as the mowing tender is a pending legal matter and cannot determine when it will be resolved.”
Mowing on the Doordrift area started last month.
Van der Ross says the mowing programme for the remaining 11 greenbelts will be implemented after the flowering season towards the end of October.
“In preparation for the mowing season, the City has procured an additional tractor and is in process of appointing a tractor driver to service the Constantia Valley Greenbelts and neighbouring areas,” says Van der Ross.
- The City advises that areas where vegetation poses a major safety risk due to poor visibility for motorists and increased incidents of crime/vandalism can be escalated to RP.Enquiries@capetown.gov.za with the relevant C3 notification supplied.
