Business forum constitutes new division

A NEW division of the Umbilo Business Forum (UBF) was constituted on Tuesday, 24 November with limited but sufficient funding, to tackle the so-called municipal withdrawal from law enforcement in the lower Umbilo/Congella area.

In June, Ian Campbell-Gillies from the UBF said with the apparent disintegration of service delivery in the Umbilo business area, the UBF had been forced to look into the development of an urban improvement precinct (UIP) or another measure as the best way to return the area to viability.

Acting on this, he announced that the new Transport Systems Maintenance division was constituted at a meeting of Umbilo transport companies at JT Ross Park on Sydney Road this week.

Speaking about the Transport Systems Maintenance division, Campbell-Gillies said funding will be approved to enable measures to be taken to interrogate the withdrawal of the municipality from effective management in areas such as road traffic law enforcement, road traffic impact assessments, business licence control and town planning control.

He also stated that the municipality had entered into competition with private enterprise through unwarranted gifting of cash and cars to the taxi industry, competing illegally with Umbilo ratepayers for space required to ensure heavy truck traffic flows and access of citizens to non-port business in Umbilo generally.

ALSO READ: City’s neglect turns Umbilo business district into cesspool of crime and grime

“Through the division, we will also focus on the fact the municipality has encouraged area degradation by allowing tax resources intended for infrastructure and proper inclusive business development to be wasted and stolen, particularly through tender fraud. The municipality has also failed to provide adequate resources to deal with immigration, ablution, lighting, drainage maintenance, sewer maintenance and cleanliness generally,” he said.

Campbell-Gillies said legal and engineering consultants will be employed to compel municipal compliance with their legal mandate.

“Where the municipality no longer has the capability to do so the UBF will engage contractors to do the work and sue the municipality accordingly,” he said.

Responding to the establishment of the Transport Systems Maintenance division, eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela, said: “Regarding allegations of employees accepting bribes, we encourage the residents to report the matter to the City Integrity and Investigations Unit for them to be investigated. Based on the information that has been brought to us we will conduct an investigation and act accordingly in the event of any illicit conduct. Our position regarding fraud and corruption is clear in that anyone found taking any bribes will face the full might of our internal disciplinary process. We will continue to commend all our stakeholders who unwaveringly alert us in the event of an unlawful conduct and we urge them to continue to do so because it will take the City together with external stakeholders to ensure that there is clean governance.”

ALSO READ: UBF efforts to clean up Congella need municipal input

He said the municipality was not aware of the formation of the division, however, the City welcomed the active participation by residents of taking over their spaces and assisting the City where they can.

“We plead with residents to keep their activities within the confines of the law and to ensure that they work with the City and not against it. The City is of the view that through active participation of its residents in ensuring that our stormwater drains are clean, we do not litter, and we refrain from putting alien objects into our drains, we could win the war against all the issues raised. Our active stakeholders should also bear in mind that we have laws and by-laws that govern us, and we need to educate ourselves about them as we embark on this active participation,” he said.

Mayisela added that the City categorically stated that it has not ‘withdrawn’ from managing the city and ensuring service delivery to residents.
“We will continue to do our level best to ensure that our residents receive the best service delivery possible,” he said.

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