Services

KEY MUNICIPAL SERVICES

The Municipality of Mossel Bay renders a range of traditional municipal services in an area covering 2007 square kilometres.

The area includes rural and residential areas such as Boggomsbaai, Brandwag, Buisplaas, D'Almeida, Dana Bay, Friemersheim, Great Brak River, Joe Slovo Village, KwaNonqaba, Little Brak River, Fraaiuitsig, Glentana, Hartenbos, Herbertsdale, Hersham, Mossel Bay, Outeniqua Beach, Rheebok, Fraaiuitsig, Tergniet, Ruiterbos, Southern Cross and Vleesbaai.

The current main services rendered by the Municipality are:

Electricity

In the 2007/2008 financial year electricity was supplied to 29 583 consumers, an increase of 1 163 over the previous year.

The Municipality does not generate its own electricity and the national electricity supplier, Eskom, supplies the electricity to the Municipality for resale to consumers in the municipal area. Units purchased from Eskom increased by 2,05 per cent from 296 380 375 units in 2006/2007 to 303 107 413 in 2007/2008.

Water

The Municipality owns and maintains a water distribution network consisting of pipelines and storage dams. The main municipal storage dam is the Ernest Robertson Dam. Water is also drawn from the Department of Water Affairs' Klipheuwel and Wolwedans Dams.

Sewerage

The Municipality owns and maintains a sewage disposal network as well as processing plants. The majority of households in Mossel Bay are serviced by a water-borne, flush sanitation system.

Environmental Health

The Mossel Bay Municipality provides cleansing services, mainly in the form of refuse removal, as well as environmental health services in addition to those provided by the Eden District Municipality.

Fire, Rescue and Safety Services

The Municipality owns and operates a fire and rescue service which provides fire fighting, fire prevention and road and other rescue services. Its community safety service provides a range of law enforcement and community protection services.

Roads

The Municipality is responsible for the planning, construction and maintenance of urban road networks. A network of 396,9 km of paved and concrete roads and 27 km of gravel roads currently falls under the Municipality. Gravel roads decreased to 10 km during the 2007/2008 financial year.

The national and main regional roads fall under the relevant authorities, and the Eden District Municipality is responsible for rural public roads within the Municipal area.

Housing

The Municipality seeks to address the housing needs of low-income groups and middle-income groups who do not have access to the commercial bond market. In this regard it acts as an agent for the Department of Housing.

This involves the identification of potential beneficiaries, identification and securing of suitable land for housing development, the sourcing of funding and project management.

At the end of June 2008 there was a waiting list of approximately 10 500 families waiting for houses, an increase of 2 500 compared to the previous year.

Libraries

There are eleven libraries, including a mobile library, in the Mossel Bay municipal area.

They are managed on an agency basis for the Provincial Government of the Western Cape and play a major role in the education of the community.

Urban Development and Control

In addition to doing its own spatial development planning and exercising control over development and building activities, an information service is provided to property owners and developers.

Vehicle Services

The Municipality provides registration services as well as the issuing of drivers licences in its area of jurisdiction. Some of these services are rendered on an agency basis.