A GROUP of feminist organisations are calling on the eThekwini Municipality to reverse their R2 million clothing allowance for VIP security guards and invest in pro poor spending.
The KZN Gender Coalition held a protest outside the Durban City Hall and handed over a petition to the mayor’s office signed by 425 people.
The petition was sparked by a story in the Berea Mail that reported the eThekwini Council had passed a motion for a clothing allowance of R1200 for each of its 109 VIP security guards.
“We were shocked,” said Phindile Mgobhozi of KZN Gender Coalition.
“As civil societies we have been struggling to get resources to help the poor, to get food parcels to people, to support shelters and places of safety. So for the municipality – that has gone out asking us as taxpayers to be prudent, save and companies to cut down expenditure – to then come around and show such opulence and spend on unnecessary things like clothing allowances … is unacceptable,” she said.
READ RELATED: City of Durban to spend R2m on formal suits for bodyguards
The coalition is made up of different organisations working in the gender-violence space. Mgobhozi said women have been the hardest hit during this pandemic, economically, physically and socially.
In the memorandum, the coalition calls on the municipality to expand programmes that fight against Gender Based Violence, improve living conditions of the elderly in state supported facilities and speed up the settlement of people in unsafe and undignified informal settlements around the city.
“We need the women within eThekwini Municipality to stand up. Empathy is needed in decisions that are made in this council. We are not saying this is corrupt, but we are asking for spending of money where it changes lives, creates public value and not make people look good,” said Mgobhozi.
No one from the city was available for comment.
The petition can be found at: https://www.change.org/p/cllr-mxolisi-kauda-mayor-a-call-for-pro-poor-spending-by-the-city-of-durban
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