A record number of people turned up for this year’s ward six mayoral imbizo held at the Ballito Library on Wednesday, November 11.
Thulani Khuluse, KwaDukuza (KDM) EXCO speaker, chaired the meeting in mayor Ricardo Mthembu’s absence and said it was the best turnout in 15 years.
Ward councillor, Colin Marsh said he counted 25 people, including the UIP’s Dieter Fittkau, Thierry Laclezio and Brian Wright.
“As councillor I am very pleased that so many people took an interest and came to the meeting,” said Marsh.
Discussions included water, the Ballito taxi rank, street lights and the mandate of the Ballito UIP.
Elias Bhengu, Ilembe district municipality (IDM) water services manager, said restrictions would likely be increased from 30 to 50 percent, rain was only expected by May 2016 and the Lower Tugela Bulk Water Scheme may augment our water supply from as early as April 2016.
Bhengu said IDM recognised the need for a desalination plant and was in the process of securing land.
Sikhumbuzo Hlongwane of KDM economic development said no provision had been made for public transport when Ballito was planned. However, KDM has allocated R6m for building the new taxi rank. He said KDM was in the process of fast tracking land expropriation from the land owners who refuse to sell.
Nick Hall of KDM technical services addressed the issue of broken street lights and said they tried to cover each of KDM’s 27 wards for two weeks once every three months while serious matters were addressed right away.
He said people who wanted additional street lights had to liaise with the ward councillors while keeping in mind that new lights had to be budgeted for a year in advance.
The UIP’s Brian Wright said the UIP would play a role in maintaining things like street lights by providing security services to open public spaces to, among other things, prevent vandalism of lights.
He said the purpose of the UIP in South Africa was to make key economic nodes work and relied heavily on partnerships and relationships with communities and municipalities.
“If local economic nodes work it helps municipalities work and ultimately the country works,” said Wright.
He cautioned people not to expect miracles and compared the work of the UIP to a process of eating an elephant one bite at at time.
