SALDANHA BAY MUNICIPALITY EXECUTIVE MAYOR ANDRÉ TRUTER INFORMS THE PUBLIC OF THE MUNICIPALITY’S PLANS TO PROCURE ENERGY

by Saldanha Bay Municipality | Sep 21, 2022 | Executive Mayor, Media Release

SALDANHA BAY MUNICIPALITY EXECUTIVE MAYOR ANDRÉ TRUTER INFORMS THE PUBLIC OF THE MUNICIPALITY’S PLANS TO PROCURE ENERGY

During an Executive Management Team meeting held on 19 September 2022, Saldanha Bay Municipality, Executive Mayor, Directors and Senior Management met to discuss the procurement of energy for Saldanha Bay.

Truter mentions that the Municipality has been working on plans to mitigate load shedding in the Saldanha Bay municipal area. “My team and I have been working tirelessly to put plans in place for energy security. The team has gone way beyond the call of duty to put preventative measures in place to prioritise exceptional service delivery for the people of Saldanha Bay.”

He has assured residents of Saldanha Bay that there are active plans in place, and he is meeting with the relevant role-players to ensure that the area becomes energy resilient. Truter states that he and the Municipal Manager, Mr Heinrich Mettler, are currently working on a private energy procurement project and they have the full support of the Western Cape Government. “We have ambitious plans, but I believe they are do-able” said Truter.

“Load shedding is the biggest constraint on Saldanha Bay’s economic growth; however, we are taking action to address both the immediate crisis and to make load shedding a thing of the past”. Saldanha Bay Municipality has proven to be highly adaptative and agile during the drought disaster in 2017 and the Covid-19 pandemic, so we will certainly conquer this energy challenge as well and leave no stone unturned, said Truter.

Truter said it would be reckless to make promises but he can assure all citizens that the Municipality is doing everything in its power to position itself in the best way possible to secure energy resilience, build the economy and to ensure that no business will have to close its doors.

He further mentioned that, as a municipality, they would also like to receive support from National Government on their energy procurement project. He said the plans are not to entirely remove the municipal area off the grid but to rather not be dependent on it.

Truter is pleased with the astounding support from the Western Cape Government, Premier Allan Winde, his cabinet, the West Coast District Municipality, Directors and the employees of Saldanha Bay Municipality. “Looking at the measures the Western Cape Government have in place; to step up in an unknown territory and not to wait for the National Government, has put me at ease.

He said Saldanha Bay Municipality is one of the top municipalities which are financially viable and, due to the team being prudent with their finances, our Municipality can build a buffer and shield our people.

Truter urges residents to use electricity sparingly by offering the following energy saving tips listed by Premier Allan Winde:

Switch off all appliances at the wall and pull out chargers – this could save 6% on electricity costs.
Decrease the geyser temperature to 60 degrees Celsius – this can save 5% on electricity costs.
Fit geysers with geyser blankets to prevent heat loss.
Replace lightbulbs with energy saving bulbs.
Set pool pumps to run for fewer hours.

“I plead with our residents to bear with us. Saldanha Bay Municipality is a receiver of load-shedding, but I can assure every citizen out there that we are in good hands. I am very confident in the team. If we stand together, I have no doubt we will come out stronger, wiser and more equipped” concluded Truter.

SALDANHA BAY SAFETY INITIATIVE (SBSI) SAFETY SUMMIT 2022

by Saldanha Bay Municipality | Jul 27, 2022 | Media Release

SALDANHA BAY SAFETY INITIATIVE (SBSI) SAFETY SUMMIT 2022

The Saldanha Bay Municipality, together with members of the Saldanha Bay Safety Initiative (SBSI), hosted its 2022 Safety Summit on Tuesday, 26 July in the Multipurpose Centre in White City, Saldanha. The theme of this year’s summit was, “Strengthening the feat [valour and skill] of Community Safety.”

The key objectives of the gathering were to highlight public and community safety initiatives in the municipal area, to review existing programmes and to identify new and emergency safety priorities. Furthermore, the summit laid the foundation to further strengthen partnerships and collaboration between key role-players in their shared goal to fight crime, to create safer communities and the management of effective execution of law enforcement.

The event was attended by various law enforcement agencies, including the South African Police Service (SAPS) and other key role players, such as Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMC), Ward Councillors, Municipal Management and officials, representatives from the West Coast District Municipality Disaster Management, representatives from local neighbourhood watches and members of the community.

In his keynote address, Executive Mayor, Councillor André Truter, applauded the SBSI members for their commitment to organise the summit and marked it as the start of a journey towards an even more focussed effort to manage safety and crime in the area. Mayor Truter shared with the audience how important it is to establish a safe environment; not only to see business, investment and living conditions prosper, but because, morally, it is our responsibility to create a stable, safe environment for generations to come. The Executive Mayor emphasised that safer communities is all of our responsibility and pronounced the importance of a “My Town, My Responsibility” attitude that should be adopted by all our residents.

In addition to the Executive Mayor, various other speakers from amongst others the Western Cape Provincial Government, West Coast District Municipality and the South African Police Service’s local Cluster, contributed greatly to the substance of the day’s topic and discussions.

Attendees had the opportunity to gather in smaller groups to workshop and submit initiatives to improve and support the safety plan for the Saldanha Bay municipal area.

#CommunityFirstApproach

#MyTownMyResponsibility

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LITTER TRAP INSTALLATION AT HOEDJIESBAAI, SALDANHA

by Saldanha Bay Municipality | Jun 29, 2022 | Environmental

LITTER TRAP INSTALLATION AT HOEDJIESBAAI, SALDANHA

The theme for World Oceans Day 2022 is “Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean”

The ocean connects, sustains, and supports us all. Yet its health is at a tipping point and so is the well-being of all that depends on it. As the past years have shown us, we need to work together to create a new balance with the ocean that no longer depletes its bounty but instead restores its vibrancy and brings it new life.

In keeping with the theme and the ethos of Sea Harvest Corporation to continuously commit to finding better solutions and a more sustainable way of doing business and the Saldanha Bay Municipality’s strategic objective to develop socially integrated, safe and healthy communities, we took collective action and endurance for the ocean by re-installing a new and improved litter trap at one of the stormwater outlets at Hoedjiesbaai in Saldanha.

What exactly is a litter trap and what is its purpose?

A litter trap is a structure used as part of a strategy to remove litter from the stormwater system, to prevent it from entering the ocean. Efforts are made to prevent the build-up of litter in catchment areas, but some still land up in the stormwater system.

The design is important because the estimated amount of litter will determine the volume of material the trap can hold and the frequency of cleaning it.

A litter trap is meant to prevent waste from entering the sea. The reason why this is important to achieve is that plastic breaks down into microplastic. Aquatic life and birds mistake microplastic for food, which accumulates in its tissue, ultimately becoming part of the food web, of which human beings are a part. Other water pollutants, such as dyes, heavy metals and other chemicals can easily attach to microplastics and these microplastics then act as a carrier of other pollutants in the body of aquatic animals, which further enter the food chain. Some organisms do not develop further and die when it comes into contact with plastic.

This project has not been without hiccups and will still experience a few more until we are able to achieve what we set out to do. The overall design was improved by enlarging the catchment volume, placing a grid beneath the trap to prevent it from getting waterlogged, Ribs were placed along the sides, to provide structure to the net so that it does not collapse on itself with the inflow of water and debris and a wider opening to accommodate easier cleaning.

Please feel free to contact Nazeema.duarte@sbm.gov.za or 0227017116 if you have suggestions to improve or report vandalism to the litter trap.

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BAOBAB FIBRE PROJECT: SALDANHA BAY MUNICIPALITY DIGITAL CITIZEN APPLICATION

by Saldanha Bay Municipality | Jun 28, 2022 | Baobab Fibre Project, Media Release

BAOBAB FIBRE PROJECT: SALDANHA BAY MUNICIPALITY DIGITAL CITIZEN APPLICATION

Saldanha Bay Municipality strives to be innovative and at the forefront of technology. To this effect, it has embraced the challenge to prepare the municipal area for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) with an inclusive approach, enabling citizens to engage in a digital transformation.

Saldanha Bay Municipality is proud to announce that the Baobab open access network (OAN) fibre project, a multi-centric utility focus, is delivering on two important Smart City building blocks.

The first building block, being the installation of a singular master open access network, is a digital highway unlocking a wide variety of approved Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Secondly enabling all Saldanha Bay Municipal residents and businesses the freedom of choice to contract with and make use of the value-added services on offer (data, content, bundle services, and municipal utility management).

Technology is not the solution on its own, but it is an enabler and catalyst that can be utilised in innovative ways to achieve socio-economic development in communities. A project such as this, is embedded in the overarching framework, of Saldanha Bay Municipality’s open access infrastructure, that will focus on solving the provision of fibre-to-the-X for all in the community, that creates an open, equitable and transparent platform for the private sector and municipality to provide value-added services on the back of the fibre network and platforms.

The Baobab fibre project was formally initiated on 6 December 2021 and has made huge strides in establishing the open access fibre infrastructure, (which has already been) installed in Langebaan, Saldanha and Vredenburg. The initial focus is on civil trenching works. The project plan makes provision for completion of works within an estimated 18 months, when the entire Saldanha Bay Municipal area will be covered with network infrastructure. The civils and ducting project will now extend to Jacobsbaai, Paternoster, St Helena Bay and Hopefield with an expected completion date of approximately August 2023.

To date, a total of four local Internet Service Providers are contracted and are in the process of being on-boarded onto the Zoom Fibre network. National and regional Internet Service Providers will offer their value-added services to all our citizens and local businesses.

In addition, various telecommunication points of presence have been deployed in each town to inter- connect the towns. In addition, the OAN fibre network partner, Zoom Fibre, will start with the fibre long hauls between the seven Saldanha Bay Municipal towns, ensuring redundancy, reliability, availability and quality of services of the deployed network.

As interest in so called Smart Cities continues to grow, driven by a range of social, economic and technological developments that are impacting cities around the world, more are committing to programmes geared towards sustainability, innovation and economic development that depend on technological investments.

Choosing the correct partners and providers to deliver these programmes is of critical importance for the future of Saldanha Bay Municipality. An effective telecommunications network and related services are essential enablers of such a smart municipal vision.

We are proud to say that we are the only municipality in the country to have tackled this holistic problem head-on. We have built a proof-of-concept network to test the viability of creating and integrating fibre as a utility. The Baobab fibre project can connect every single household in our area of jurisdiction, and it will depend on the end-user to order their desired services on the back of this connection, with municipal utilities it, as a standard provision.

On Friday, 1 July 2022, the Saldanha Bay Municipality will deliver on the second building block by activating the Saldanha Bay Municipality Digital Citizen Application that is integrated with the open access network to deliver its utility services digitally to prospective users. The Digital Citizen Application will connect citizens, businesses and the municipality with one another to create a smarter, more efficient working community.

Baobab Fibre Project Statistics: Currently in Progress

Vredenburg

Saldanha

Langebaan

Total meters combined
Total planned meters	266 609	m
Total meters completed	247 244	m

Vredenburg
Total planned meters	124 081	m
Total meters completed	106 197	m

Langebaan
Total planned meters	70 267	m
Total meters completed	68 786	m

Saldanha
Total planned meters	72 261	m
Total meters completed	72 261	m

Activities for broadband services are underway in the above-mentioned areas and can be pre-ordered.

The Digital Citizen App, conceptualised by Amoeba TSC and aligned to function effortlessly with municipal systems, forms part of the Baobab Fibre project, which is focused on connecting every single household in the municipal area.

The application is a comprehensive engagement platform between the citizens, municipality and service providers with the following functionalities: communication, emergency button, helpdesk, utility management, services shopping, digital wallet and payments, document repository, events, photo gallery and facility management. Certain functionalities are still under construction.

Community Focus:

The Baobab fibre project is focused on more than just providing an Open Access Network in the Saldanha Bay Municipal area. Zoom Fibre is further committed to supplying every school within the region with a free fibre connection in line with the Zoom Fibre school initiative. Throughout the roll-out of the network Zoom Fibre has further committed to supply temporary and permanent local employment, either directly with Zoom Fibre or through their build partner First in Fibre Optics (Pty) Ltd. (FIFO). To date the project has involved over 200 local persons with temporary employment opportunities:

Baobab Fibre Project: Local Employment
Month 2022	Saldanha Average	Langebaan Average	Vredenburg Average
February 2022	50	24	92
March 2022	56	11	143
April 2022	12	8	42
May 2022	26	16	194

Zoom Fibre and FIFO have further committed to engage local Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in every phase of the project roll out. Project opportunities are advertised and published on the Saldanha Bay Municipality website, under the “Baobab Fibre Project” tab. To appoint suitable and quality local businesses to assist with these project opportunities, formal vetting is done by both the Saldanha Bay Municipality and Zoom Fibre.

The Saldanha Bay Municipal Digital Citizen App for Android and iOS can be downloaded from the various app stores.

Android from the Google Play Store, iOS from the Apple App store and Huawei App Gallery.

Download Instructions:

Search for Saldanha Digital Citizen and follow download instructions. Register as a user.

Homeowners can link their Saldanha Bay Municipality properties in the application.

Enquiries: E-mail to Baobab@sbm.gov.za.

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Baobab Smart City Project: Launch of the Saldanha Bay Municipality Digital Citizen App

by Saldanha Bay Municipality | Jun 3, 2022 | Media Release, News, Press Release

Baobab Smart City Project: Launch of the Saldanha Bay Municipality Digital Citizen App

On Thursday, 02 June 2022, the Saldanha Bay Municipality in its continued commitment to be innovative and at the forefront of technology, has launched its Digital Citizen App and effectively put the Municipality in the palms of its residents.

The Digital Citizen App forms part of the Baobab Fibre project, which is focused on connecting every single household in the municipal area.

The App is a comprehensive engagement platform between the citizens, the Municipality and service providers with communication, an emergency button, help desk, utility management, services shopping, digital wallet and payments, document repository, events, photo gallery and facility management functionality.

“Technology is not the solution on its own but is rather an enabler and catalyst to be utilised in innovative ways to achieve socio-economic development in and for our communities,” says Executive Mayor, Councillor André Truter.

The Digital Citizen App is one of two key building blocks for the Saldanha Bay Municipality, the first of which is the installation of a single Open Access Network.

“This open access network provides a digital highway to our Municipality that unlocks access to a multitude of Internet Service Providers and provides the access medium, to enable the rest of the building blocks”, adds Councillor Truter.

The Baobab Fibre Project is embedded in the overarching framework of Saldanha Bay Municipality’s open access infrastructure, focusing on solving the provision of Fibre-to-the-X for all in the community.

This creates an open, equitable and transparent platform for the private sector and Municipality to provide value-added services on the back of the fibre network and platforms,” says Executive Mayor, Councillor Truter.

As interest in smart cities continues to grow, driven by a range of social, economic, and technological developments that are impacting cities around the world, more are committing to programmes for sustainability, innovation and economic development that depend on technological investments.

“Choosing the correct partners and providers to deliver these programmes is of critical importance for the future of Saldanha Bay Municipality. An effective telecommunications network and related services is one of the essential enablers of such a smart Municipality vision,” concludes the Executive Mayor, Councillor Truter.

The Digital Citizen App will be available to download from the App Store and Google Play Store on 01 July 2022.

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