Durban councillors have called for the eThekwini Municipality to properly implement service delivery efforts, as departments continue to suffer. Additionally, they said that more staff and money is needed within these departments to fully execute proper service delivery.
Ward 36 councillor, Heinz de Boer said that for a while, the government has mentioned ‘back to basics’ approach and this needs to occur in order for citizens to be happy. He said: “For starters, tree trimming. This is a basic service delivery function that needs to be optimised as we have trees that fall every time it rains hard. Secondly, we need to clear stormwater drains more regularly. Thirdly, we need to start replacing water pipes by R1-R1.5 billion a year, as this would also help create jobs. We also need to start refurbishing and inspecting our sewer network to see who is illegally connected to the sewer lines because sewer manholes shouldn’t be popping up whenever there is heavy rain.”
De Boer said more infrastructure upgrades are needed for electricity and reducing pressure in the main water pipes. “Along with potholes being fixed and refuse collected, these are the core things that citizens want, not a grand scheme about audit and risk committees. The city has become a patch job and when there’s a crisis, they throw money here and there. We’re no longer a sustainable city,” he said. Additionally, the money spent on repairing burst pipes could easily be spent on replacing.
During a recent exco meeting, the eThekwini Municipality revealed that R1.4 billion had been allocated on disaster recovery following the recent rains across Durban. EThekwini Municipality mayor, Cyril Xaba, said the cost implications from these rains amount to R1 368 668 774.04 (over R1.36 billion) for capital expenditure and R59 724 150.00 (over R59.7 million) for operating expenditure. “The Executive Committee received a report from Disaster Management and Emergency Control on the heavy rains experienced in February and early March. The report excluded the recent rains on 13 and 14 March as an assessment is still in progress. It also included proactive measurements, incident and damage assessments, as well as costs associated with recovery. The report provided cost implications were based on an immediate response, short-term recovery, and long-term restoration,” Xaba said.
