THE municipality has expressed its concern about the number of protests against ongoing construction projects in different areas, which hamper its service delivery programmes.
“These actions often result in work stoppages on-site, where the municipality runs into a loss of millions of Rands of taxpayers’ money because of delays in the projects,” said, Tozi Mthethwa, eThekwini Municipality’s head of communications.
Head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli, revealed before the Human Settlements and Infrastructure Committee that work stoppages are hindering progress, especially in the western aqueduct project, which was due to be complete by 2017. “The disruption of work in various projects is mostly motivated by self-interest and people who demand employment in those projects,” said Msweli.
The engineering unit is one of the units that is mostly affected by stoppages during construction of roads and other infrastructure. The municipality is appealing to community members to allow construction work to proceed in their respective areas so that service delivery can be fast-tracked. Community members are encouraged to raise their concerns through appropriate channels without resorting to violence or stopping municipal projects.
