ELECTIONS are done and dusted, on Friday the City of uMhlathuze’s leadership was re-elected and sworn into office and now the time has come for the focus to switch back to running the City.
During the first official council meeting after local government elections, newly re-elected City Mayor Mduduzi Mhlongo undertook to ensure fast-tracked service delivery and increasingly boost economic development.
Eyethu Bay Watch sat down with Councillor Mhlongo shortly after he his inauguration and asked him some of the most burning questions about things that affect the day-to-day lives of residents.
You mentioned ‘robust engagements’ in terms of service delivery and economic development for the City during your speech – please elaborate?
‘Local government is closest to the people and by law, councillors are required to interact with the electorate on matters of service delivery,’ said Mhlongo.
‘Monthly and quarterly meetings shall be observed at all times by all ward councillors, to ensure that the entire community is kept updated on service delivery and how far the City is with plans.
‘Moreover, a new communications strategy together with our Public Participation Units will work on other strategic and modern methods of engaging with the community we serve.’
It seems service delivery as a whole will form the main focus for our City’s new council. There are some issues that the community complains about on a weekly basis. Tell us how you are planning to resolve these problems?
Nuisance Bylaws
‘The new council will look into all bylaws as a collective and already we are working on a City crime prevention strategy which will also include beefing up the Bylaw Enforcement Unit. The council will also formulate a new bylaw committee alongside all statutory council committees,’ said Mhlongo.
Water leaks
‘We have begun working on fixing all water leaks and calling on the community to report leaks,’ he said.
‘The focus now is mainly on encouraging people to fix leaks inside their homes.
Around 10% of fresh water in pumped into the City is lost due to leaks.
‘We cannot win this war alone; we need commitment from the community to report to our technicians.
‘The drought is still persistent and devastating. We will continue to research new ways of supplying water such as purifying sea water (desalination), using water tankers and bulk water tanks in different areas.
‘More importantly we will continue to preach the ‘save water’ message to our communities.
‘We shall remind them as well as reduce water pressure during specific periods and at times restrict up to 0%.
‘This has assisted a lot and communities should bear with us on this matter as it is a natural and indeed national crisis.’
Water wastage
‘Since July the City has implemented new tariffs including penalties on all those who exceed the 15kl/month mark. The new council will also look at possibilities of penalising those who deliberately waste water.’
Potholes
‘It must be noted that most of our roads have exceeded their life span and with the population growth as well as increase of economic activities especially as we have the harbour, our roads become more and more strained every day,’ explained Mhlongo.
‘We have recently rehabilitated some roads to the tune of more than R30-million.
‘More roads will be rehabilitated in phases. The road rehabilitation in Ward 23 (Empangeni Main Road) is part of that programme.’
Mhlongo was re-elected unopposed and he will be joined by Deputy Mayor Silondile Mkhize, Speaker Mfundo Mthenjana and Chief Whip Manie Lourens.
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