Quicker crime response and new ways to tackle crime were discussed during a Mayoral Post-Budget Speech Breakfast last Wednesday. Led by the eThekwini Municipality, the breakfast, which took place at the Durban ICC, also unpacked the final 2025/26 budget, which was adopted recently.
The eThekwini Municipality has committed to a new application in the fight against crime. This commitment was made by City Manager, Musa Mbhele, during a post-budget speech.
During the question and answer session, various religious leaders welcomed the city’s presentation and also provided input that could help address crime. EThekwini Community Church Bishop Vusi Dube said he wanted to thank the mayor for this presentation. “One is excited to see places like Albert Park coming back to life, and the business of the city is showing that the city is regaining its strength. Being the voice of other pastors, we’re grateful for being involved. As an interfaith structure, we understand the great role we have, especially because we can do everything, but if this element of moral regeneration is not affirmed, we will be wasting a lot of effort. We need to make plans with the city manager and the mayor to further help improve the city.”
Pastor Mandla Cebekhulu, from the Coastal Assemblies of God and South Beach Community Policing Forum (CPF), commented on the homeless people that stayed around South Beach and how the community were unsafe. “We appreciate the work done by Metro Police and we’re seeing a lot of difference. The issue is that there is a shortage of resources within the CPF structures, the Neighbourhood Watch and Community In Blue. The city needs to come closer with these structures in the fight against crime.”
In reference to crime-fighting measures, Mbhele said: “With CPFs, there are programmes in place, it’s just a question of increasing the reach and taking new ideas that could be used to fight crime. Very soon, we will launch an electronic application that any citizen could use, where one can communicate with all law enforcement agencies – SAPS, Metro, or private security companies. We are currently in a partnership with Ensure Security – security response. With a press of the button, the response will be within 5 minutes. This is part of the Inner-City Regeneration plan (ICR). We will pilot it in the Durban CBD soon.”
EThekwini Municipality mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda is not mentioned however “Cyril Xaba” is mentioned as Mayor. For the purpose of this edit I will assume “Cyril Xaba” is the current mayor and continue with the edit.
EThekwini Municipality mayor, Cyril Xaba, explained the ICR and committed that the city were accelerating efforts to make Durban an investment-friendly city. “As the leadership, we have acknowledged that a great deal must be done to revive the city centre, hence we are currently implementing the inner-city regeneration programme. Through this bold initiative, we want to improve public safety, address the challenge of homelessness – eradicating bad buildings, upgrading public realms, patching potholes, and ensuring that streetlights are on.”
“Since law enforcement is the key component of this programme, we have increased the number of Metro police personnel and deployed technology to enforce bylaws. To safeguard and grow the informal trade business, we are clamping down on illegal informal trade and enforcing building bylaws to ensure that no illegal activities are taking place in the inner-city.”
