Coenie Groenewald, Municipal Electoral Officer for Overstrand, confirmed that the by-elections for wards 2 (Gansbaai), 5 (Zwelihle) and 7 (Sandbaai) will take place on Wednesday 26 November 2014.
 
The cut-off date and time for the submission of nominations for candidates in the by-elections is Friday, 24 October 2014 at 17:00. The list of approved ward candidates will be announced on 10 November 2014.
 
New voters in the relevant wards have the opportunity to register on 18 and 19 October 2014 (from 08:00 till 17:00) at the respective voting stations in the relevant wards, or daily during normal office hours at the IEC's local office at Office 4A, Twin Gables, 26 High Street, Hermanus (tel. 028 312 1464/5). The voters’ roll closes on Friday 24 October 2014 at 17:00.

To coincide with the annual Whale Festival, Overstrand recently hosted its Municipal Showcase at Gearing’s Point from 3 to 6 October. This time round, partaking municipal departments went a little beyond merely putting up displays to showcase their services: Instead, the personnel who manned the stations daily actively engaged with visitors to answer their questions and to provide information on municipal services in visitors’ mother tongues.

Despite the weather not playing along initially, young and old attended the festival in droves. Around 150 walk-ins were welcomed to the Showcase daily, and most were impressed with the quality of the displays and the attending personnel’s courteous response to their questions. Around a hundred written comments were received and will be followed up with the respondents in question over the next couple of weeks.

The idea behind the exhibition is to bring municipal services closer to the people we serve and to showcase the municipality’ achievements as a centre of excellence. This year, Infrastructure & Planning, LED, Community Services, Management Services, Protection Services and finance directorates manned stalls. They were joined by representatives from all four administrations as well as the fire brigade.

Generally, feedback regarding the new format is positive, and the municipality and the participating directorates plan on building on the lessons learnt to put up an even more impressive show next year.

Several initiatives are in full swing all over Overstrand to bring a little joy to those in need this year. Many of us would like to contribute but are unsure who to approach or where to drop off our goodies. Here are some worthy options to consider:

• Santa Shoebox Project – this inspiring community initiative of the Kidz2Kidz Trust involves the distribution of personalised gifts at Christmas time to underprivileged children across the country. Fill your gift box with some necessities, such as toothpaste and toothbrush, facecloth and soap, as well as some sweets, educational supplies, a toy and an outfit of clothing. For more information, call Wendie Cleary on 028 316 2257, but hurry because boxes must be dropped off in Hermanus or Gansbaai by no later than 18:00, Saturday 1 November.
  
  
• Bags of Love – through this campaign, the poorest of the poor in Overstrand can enjoy a bag full of basic necessities and quite often a few Christmas treats as well. As part of the initiative, bags (provided) are filled with basic groceries from a standard shopping list and distributed to needy families just before Christmas. The grocery items can be bought at certain chain stores in Hermanus at a cost of around R130. For more information, call Des Collins on 082 824 1058 or 028 316 4434.

For many a payer of municipal bills, it often comes as a shock to see just how much electricity a household and/or business is, in fact, consuming in a month. However, there is a simple and relatively cheap way to put an end to the uncontrolled consumption of the “utility” electricity which, in the long run, can offer huge savings.

For starters, by switching from a credit meter to prepaid electricity means that you will be saving on every kilowatt-hour (or unit) used. But more importantly, you will be able to control exactly how much electricity your household/business consumes.

The conversion costs R968 and the deposit on this is R424. Also do keep in mind, though, that you can use your current deposit to cover the conversion costs and that a private electrician is not required if a PLC meter is installed. This device can be plugged into the nearest wall plug. However, if you want to make use of the usual wall unit, the services of a private electrician will be required which could result in extra costs.