Eventful year for eThekwini metro

Published Dec 29, 2014

Share

The eThekwini Municipality never sleeps. Somewhere right now one of the city’s 23 000 municipal workers is unblocking a clogged drain, repairing potholes or connecting someone to the electricity grid or water supply. It all flows from the city’s massive R36 billion budget, overseen by 205 councillors who ensure services are provided to the nearly five million metro residents. In one way or another, decisions at the Durban City Hall affect every resident. LEE RONDGANGER looks at the municipal highs and lows of 2014

...

NO CLEAN AUDIT

FOR the sixth year in a row, the eThekwini Municipality failed to get a clean audit.

According to the auditor-general’s report, the municipality had been responsible for R325 million in irregular expenditure.

The report revealed the municipality’s water loss stood at R513m, and the electricity loss amounted to R386m.

All eight of South Africa’s major metros failed to achieve clean audits.

Only 17 out of 278 municipalities received full approval for their books, otherwise known as unqualified audits.

WARWICK TRIANGLE

After years of delays and court battles, the municipality put the development of the Warwick Triangle back on track.

Four years after facing an angry backlash from Early Morning Market traders who objected to plans to build a R400m mall on the historic site, the city approved plans to spend R123m on constructing pedestrian links, building hawker trading platforms and a sheltered taxi rank at the precinct.

The city, however, bowed to pressure from the traders and decided not to build a mall at the precinct, as had been originally planned, and opted to keep the traders where they are.

The city plans to spend R63.5m constructing pedestrian links and hawker platforms around the Berea Road Station mall, and R59m would be spent on a taxi rank.

ELEPHANT SCULPTURES

Durban’s famed elephant sculptures that were at the centre of a protracted court battle between the city and the artist, Andries Botha, were finally given a new lease on life – after being targeted by vandals and falling into disrepair.

Work had been halted on the sculptures, situated at the end of the N3 near Warwick Triangle, after the ANC-controlled municipality tried to persuade Botha to change his artwork from three elephants to one representing the Big Five.

Botha refused on artistic grounds, and took the municipality to court.

Work on the sculptures was initially stopped in 2010 after the late eThekwini regional ANC chairman, John Mchunu, said the elephants resembled the symbol of the IFP.

The three wire-and-stone jumbos, meant to be the pride of the city ahead of the 2010 World Cup, had been the target of vandals, who stole some of the wiring, leaving one of the elephants without a trunk.

The other was completely destroyed. But they were recently completed and are being guarded.

CHAOTIC MEETING

An eThekwini council meeting turned chaotic in KwaMashu early this year after IFP councillors objected to the decision not to allow people in IFP T-shirts into the tent where the meeting was being held.

The IFP was angry that the council had allowed people wearing ANC T-shirts into a council meeting in Umbumbulu the month before, as part of the municipality’s attempt to “bring council to the people”.

While IFP councillors stopped proceedings in the tent, outside about 200 IFP-clad supporters toyi-toyied and sang songs under the steely gaze of armed policemen, who kept them at bay.

The IFP and DA later walked out of the meeting.

BONUS BROUHAHA

Ratepayer groups were outraged after the city approved hefty bonuses for city officials.

Sixteen senior managers, including the heads of various departments and the deputy city managers, were given bonuses totalling more than R1.4m.

City manager, S’bu Sithole, received a R179 867 performance bonus for work over the past two financial years.

This is over and above his annual R2.3m salary, which with allowances and contributions, pushed his total package to R2.7m, city documents revealed.

The total cost of the municipality’s executive pay was more than R123m, which includes the performance bonus-es.

City treasurer Krish Kumar received R91 925 in addition to his R1.3m salary, while deputy city manager of health, safety and social services, Musa Gumede, received the second-highest performance bonus after Sithole’s – R138 153 – over and above his R1.7m annual salary.

Kumar was the second-highest paid city official, with a total package of R2.5m, including R825 000 in allowances, follow-ed by Gumede at R2.3m.

The deputy city manager of human resources, Dumisile Nene, and deputy city manager of sustainable development, Naledi Moyo, received bonuses of R127 443.

Their total packages were R2m and R1.9m respectively.

Other senior managers received bonuses between R59 000 and R112 000.

BACK PAY RUCKUS

Mayor James Nxumalo and members of the city’s executive committee were pelted with bottles and stones by angry municipal workers who rejected the mayor’s promise to make a final decision – only after the May 7 elections – on the millions of rand in back pay owed them.

The situation worsened at a meeting at the Curries Fountain soccer stadium when a shop steward, angered by the pelting, pulled out a gun and pointed it at those responsible. A mob charged at him.

The angry employees managed to disarm the shop steward, identified as Sifiso Hlongwa from the electricity department, and pummelled him with a series of blows to his head and body.

Later, around 3 000 municipal workers marched through the city centre, where they overturned rubbish bins, causing massive disruptions to traffic.

City officials yielded to the pressure within 24 hours and paid the workers their back pay.

PIPELINE PROBLEMS

The taps at thousands of north Durban homes ran dry when a broken pipeline at the Durban Heights water treatment plant in Reservoir Hills collapsed after thieves stole nine steel supporting cables.

City engineers re-routed water to the affected area while 60 municipal workers split into two shifts, working 24 hours a day to repair the broken pipeline a week ahead of schedule.

APP CHOICE

The eThekwini Municipality launched its very own app this year that it hopes will make the lives of ratepayers and councillors easy.

The app allows residents to lodge complaints and access their billing information from their smartphones and tablets through an application that can be downloaded from Play Store for Android devices and the App Store for Apple devices.

The app will allow ward councillors and ratepayers to alert the municipality to problems such as potholes and water leaks in their area by simply taking a picture of it and sending it to the relevant department.

Fawzia Peer, chairwoman of the finance committee, hailed the app, saying that it would launch the city into the digital age.

TO THE POINT

Malaysia’s biggest property company, which owns half the Durban Point Development Company (DPDC), announced plans to “revive” the stalled multibillion-rand waterfront project earlier this year.

The city approved the secession of the Durban Infrastructure Development Trust – valued at R78m – to the municipality, meaning the city could negotiate directly with investors wanting to pump billions into the Point Waterfront development.

The trust was set up by the city in 1993 to promote the development, planning and construction of Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, the Point development and other large capital projects in an effort to stimulate economic growth.

The trust owns half of the DPDC, with the rest owned by Malaysian company Rocpoint, whose parent company, UEM Sunrise, is Malaysia’s largest property developer.

NOT SO SPORTING

One of Durban’s oldest sports clubs, Berea Rovers, was given a fright this year when the municipality revealed plans to evict them from their premises near the King’s Park stadium, to make way for development of a Liverpool Football Club academy.

The city also said that no sports clubs in Durban would be given long-term leases by the eThekwini Municipality unless they transformed.

Berea Rovers, as with nearly 40 other sports clubs in the city, have been on a month-to-month lease with the municipality, which in 2004 stopped renewing leases on council property to sporting bodies, pending a policy review.

Thembinkosi Ngcobo, head of eThekwini Parks and Recreation, said the city would not give sports clubs “a blank cheque” by giving them long-term leases without them showing a concrete plan of how they intended to transform and build greater “social cohesion and economic development” around their sites.

Berea Rovers were, however, saved from eviction due to a last-minute deal struck with Hoy Park Management, the developers of the Liverpool academy, who promised to accommodate them in their new sporting precinct.

PEACE PIPE

Former municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe smoked the peace pipe with his successor, S’bu Sithole, after settling a R10.5m civil lawsuit out of court.

Sutcliffe filed suit against the municipality after Sithole had alleged that Sutcliffe had lost the municipality R1m by failing to report fraud.

The pair were due to go head-to-head in court, but had settled the matter amicably just days before it was to go to trial.

DEBT CHASERS

The eThekwini municipality was the best performing municipality in the country in terms of collecting debt, after collections increased by R2 billion to R26.2bn, compared with last year.

According to city treasurer, Krish Kumar, this was a 105 percent increase in the city’s revenue collection rate.

Officials also pointed out that the city’s coffers were in good financial health, with expenditure at R24bn, while the accumulated surplus funds and reserves were a healthy R2.5bn.

The municipality’s assets were worth R52.2bn, while the net cash and cash resources bank and call deposits sat at R2.5bn – up 65 percent from last year, when it stood at R450m.

On the downside though, debt – particularly government-owed debt – remained a problem for the city.

Of the R2.8bn owed to the municipality, government debt equated to R515m, of which R144m was outstanding for more than 90 days, a budget statement report stated.

Parastatals owed the municipality in excess of R764m.

Related Topics: