uMngeni to renew contract with SPCA

uMngeni Municipality has commit-
ted to renewing its agreement with
the uMngeni Society for the Preven-
tion of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
The SPCA previously had an
agreement with the municipality to
render pound services, which ended
in 2018 following a dispute and was
never renewed.
uMngeni mayor, Chris Pappas
said the dispute was as a result of the
SPCA erroneously overcharging the
municipality.
"Since 2018 the municipality has
had very negative engagements with
the SPCA but [from] January there
has been progress to lawfully secure
the services of an animal care provid-
er. It would be irregular to simply pay
money over for a service without the
proper procurement and contracts
being in place," said Pappas,
He said the municipality has set
aside R185 000 for the remainder of
the financial year ending in June to
support the memorandum of under-
standing for animal care.
Pappas said he met with repre-
sentatives from the SPCA in January
to rebuild the relationship and to be-
gin to resolve outstanding issues.
The chairperson for uMngeni
SPCA committee, Derrick Santos,
said the organisation was only asking
for a new agreement between them
and the municipality.
He said uMngeni owed the SPCA
over R600 000 for outstanding
pound fees dating back to 2018.
"The SPCA offered to write off the
R600 000 taking into consideration
the municipality was lacking funds.
"The mayor promised to come
back to us before the start of February
and we are now in March." said San-
tos.
He added in 2019, the SPCA
stopped offering pound services in
uMngeni, however the community
still contacted the SPCA for assist-
ance so they continued providing the
service despite not being paid by the
municipality.
"We are asking for support and we
are not rushing anything, we are only
doing follow-ups. Tolookafter an an-
imal costs about a RI00 per day and
all these fees are now being paid by
public donations.
"There's about 10 to 19 dogs in the
pound at any given time. There's also
cost when collecting stray dogs.
"All these costs used to be covered
by the municipality" Santos said. - Lodiwe Xulu