Security upgrades underway at Durban City Hall

TO improve safety and secure the Durban City Hall,  a municipal asset, a number of planned security upgrades are currently underway. Access control and closed-circuit television cameras will be upgraded. According to City officials there will also be a recruitment of staff and minor structural configurations to create ease of traffic flow.

In a statement City officials said that on at least two occasions this year, the Executive Committee meeting was disrupted by aggrieved parties who entered the boardroom to air their grievances. On Monday (25 October), a group that had not made prior arrangements to meet with the City’s Executive Committee was removed from the boardroom by security for the meeting to resume.

Mayor Zandile Gumede said the City values its stakeholders and is willing to engage in discussion with them regarding issues of concern so that they can be amicably addressed. “

However, there are processes that have to be followed and the correct platforms used to communicate. If you allow one group of people to speak you will have to allow anyone who disrupts a meeting to do so, and we cannot allow that,” she said.

Gumede said security was important and that upgrades were needed at City Hall.

City Manager Sibusiso Sithole said security measures were already being upgraded at City Hall.

“We are beefing up on cameras and access control. Boom gates are also going to be installed in the next two months. Security is an ongoing issue. The quick manner in which the disruption was handled shows that security is a priority,” Sithole said.