11 new bakkies set to strengthen  service delivery

Kouga Infrastructure and Engineering Portfolio Councillor Freddy Campher (third from left) receives one of the new Nissan bakkies from BB Auto Commercial Brand Manager Charles Baker. With him are St Francis Bay Acting Foreman for water Xolile Skosana (inside the van), Kouga Speaker Hattingh Bornman, Special Worksman Isaak Coenraad and Humansdorp Algoa Nissan General Manager Pierre du Plessis.

The Kouga Municipal fleet has received another boost, with 11 new bakkies set to strengthen the institution’s service delivery departments.

The one-ton Nissan light delivery vehicles (LDVs) were picked up from Humansdorp’s Algoa Nissan on Tuesday. The total cost of the bakkies is almost R3,6 million.

Executive Mayor Horatio Hendricks said aging municipal vehicles impeded service delivery and that replacing the fleet was one of the priorities for the municipality’s leadership.

“We were shocked after we took over as the new Council in 2016 to learn that only 4% of the municipality’s vehicles were fully operational while the remainder were constantly breaking down and 58 were no longer working at all,” he said.

He said the new leadership immediately set out to replace the dysfunctional fleet systematically in order to meet the needs of communities.

Eight of the bakkies will be given to the Water and Sewerage teams. Two will be used by the Electrical section while the Corporate Services directorate will, after many years, also have a new set of wheels to play their role as a support department effectively. .

“We are confident that this will help curb unnecessary delays and improve our response time to service delivery complaints,” said Hendricks.