ETHEKWINI Municipality’s leadership reaffirmed its commitment to improving the lives of residents through providing efficient service delivery and growing the local economy.
This commitment was made following an address by Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma at a full meeting of council at the Durban City Hall on 31 July.
Minister Dlamini-Zuma’s address formed part of an oversight visit to eThekwini to gauge the level of service delivery as well as other challenges facing the City. Deputy Minister of Cogta, Parks Tau, was also present at the meeting.
“This is my first visit to the metro and I appreciate that you have committed yourself to doing well and addressing issues raised by the Auditor General of South Africa, Cogta and eThekwini residents.. However, the challenges highlighted in eThekwini do not draw away from the good that has been done in the City. We highlight these challenges because we want eThekwini to move from being a good City to an excellent one,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
She said it was common knowledge that many municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and the rest of the country were facing challenges.
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“EThekwini Municipality has made significant gains in expanding access to services for the majority of people. Despite these gains, there are significant challenges that need to be addressed for the Municipality to regain its growth momentum. The Auditor General gave the Municipality an unqualified report with findings. This means that we must find ways to improve collection on services rendered by the Municipality, as the metro cannot afford to continue to write off bad debt. We also need to intensify the war on leaks and illegal connections, which has led to a R740 million revenue loss due to water losses of 105 million kilo-litres,” Minister Dlamini-Zuma added.
Acting eThekwini Mayor Fawzia Peer said while much has been achieved in the City, she believes even more can be done if all stakeholders work together.
“We still face challenges including poverty, unemployment, growing inequality and underdevelopment. Our budget of R50.6 billion for the 2019/20 financial year is an action budget as this is the season for implementation,” she said.
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