ON THE ROAD | Frustration grows in Hessequa’s still waters ahead of elections - News24

Hessequa in the Western Cape may be politically stable, but for some residents, frustration is growing. Across its picturesque towns, residents are raising concerns over municipal services, tariffs, law enforcement, and whether the municipality is keeping pace with their needs.

In the second part of our Garden Route series, News24 travelled more than 200km to examine the growing pressures facing communities in Hessequa and George ahead of the 4 November local government elections. Marvin Charles, Storm Simpson and Soyiso Maliti report.

Hessequa in the Western Cape may have escaped the coalition instability threatening to paralyse other hung municipalities, but a growing chorus of ratepayers is questioning whether political stability has translated into better value for money, reliable services, and a clear vision for the Garden Route municipality.

From the cost of doing business and municipal tariffs to traffic fines and the rules governing private properties, residents and business owners are scrutinising how the municipality is run ahead of the local government elections on Wednesday.

Known for its picturesque towns and historically strong audit performance, Hessequa has been governed by the DA since the 2021 local government elections, when it secured the support of the FF Plus to take control of the council.

But Alexander Panzek, who is involved in the Garden Route Ratepayers’ Alliance, believes the municipality needs to do more than maintain political stability. He wants a clearer plan for the towns it governs and greater accountability for decisions affecting residents, businesses and pensioners.

“The municipality or mayor must have a plan for the municipality. He must have a vision for the municipality. What do I really want to do here? What are we offering?” Panzek said.

“There’s just no interest in having a vision for the town.”

Panzek, who became involved in municipal affairs after moving to Heidelberg about 15 years ago, added that his interest stemmed from the impact municipal decisions had on property owners and businesses.

“I was in the Wilderness before, where I was involved in accommodation,” he said.

“I was always interested in how decisions are made in terms of tariffs and policies, and how these decisions affect ratepayers and the people on the ground: businesses, small businesses, pensioners, everyone who receives a municipal bill.”

His concerns intensified after his guest house was placed under a tariff structure he believed imposed an unfair burden on accommodation providers.

But Panzek said the issue went beyond his own business, raising broader questions about how municipal policies affected investment and the sustainability of local enterprises.

Hessequa Mayor Grant Riddles disputed concerns about property rates, saying the municipality’s property rates policy classified guest houses, bed-and-breakfast establishments and guest lodges as business and commercial properties in accordance with the Municipal Property Rates Act.

There is no separate category for accommodation establishments, Riddles added.

He also disputed the suggestion that the business and commercial rate was significantly higher than the residential rate.

“The rate for residential properties is 0.008090 cents in the rand, while the business and commercial rate is only 2.48% higher at 0.008291 c/R. The difference is minimal and does not have a significant impact on any establishment. It rather seeks to encourage investment in business.”

Riddles said the argument that rates were disproportionate to the services received and threatened business viability was not substantiated.

Another point of contention is the municipality’s target for traffic-fine revenue.

According to Hessequa’s Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP), the traffic department has a quarterly target of R4 million in traffic-fine revenue, equivalent to approximately R16 million a year.

Panzek questioned whether setting a monetary target could create pressure to issue more fines, arguing that residents had noticed increased traffic enforcement.

Panzek added that residents had complained that motorists were receiving fines for relatively minor offences rather than warnings.

“I mean, they are really writing people up for nonsense stuff,” he said, and cited examples like motorists forgetting their licences at home or failing to wear seatbelts.

“It’s a traffic offence, but they’re not giving a warning. They immediately give a fine.”

The FF Plus also raised concerns about linking traffic officers’ performance to a monetary value, arguing that this could create a conflict of interest.

Riddles rejected the suggestion that the revenue target was intended to incentivise officers to issue more fines.

He said the target was included in the SDBIP as a budgeting and revenue-forecasting measure to estimate income from law enforcement activity.

Riddles stressed that the target concerned the value of fines collected rather than the fines issued.

“The Hessequa municipality has set this organisational target to track the actual revenue collected from the complete traffic fines management system, which primarily includes speed cameras [fixed and temporary].”

He said fines issued by physical law enforcement officers accounted for a small percentage of the total, with officers focused on road safety.

Riddles added that the performance measure was intended to track the collection process across the traffic fines system, rather than encourage officers to issue more fines.

He said fines were intended to serve as a deterrent, not as a revenue-generating mechanism, and that the municipality had no record of complaints linked to pressure to meet financial targets.

In the Môrestond neighbourhood of Riversdale, 67-year-old Klaas May stated that residents were frustrated by what he described as inconsistent refuse collection and a lack of tree maintenance.

At the top of Riversdale, the main town, past the tarred roads and onto the rocky gravel stretch of Môrestond, the town falls away below a cluster of homes perched on the mountainside.

There is a quiet contentment among those who live here, a sense of belonging that comes with calling this corner of Hessequa home.

But even in this peaceful neighbourhood, discontent is simmering. May told News24:

Hessequa’s political history helps explain why it stands apart from many municipalities now facing the prospect of coalition government.

For years, the ANC controlled the municipality.

Its political standing was subsequently damaged by concerns about municipal management and findings in a Public Protector report.

In 2021, the Public Protector found former Hessequa mayor Christopher Taute of the ANC guilty of improper conduct and unlawful behaviour for attempting to solicit business donations for his party while in office.

Hessequa had previously been governed through coalition arrangements, with smaller parties holding the balance of power in the council.

That changed in 2021 when the DA secured nine of Hessequa’s 17 council seats, giving it an outright majority. The ANC won six seats, while the FF Plus and Patriotic Alliance secured one seat each. The result ended Hessequa’s status as a hung municipality.

That stability is now part of the political backdrop to the November elections. But for critics such as Panzek, the question is whether a stable administration is doing enough to plan for the future and address residents’ concerns.

“I don’t want to only be negative,” he said. “The positive is that Hessequa is a beautiful place to live. It’s safe.”

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