Durban - Newly elected eThekwini mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda, has vowed to tackle the city's chaotic billing system and problems around refuse removal in uMlazi as his new administration hit the ground on Tuesday.
Mxolisi chaired his inaugural executive committee (Exco) meeting on Tuesday morning at the Moses Mabhida Stadium’s media lounge where the chairpersons for the new committees were being appointed.
The committees, which are not to exceed the number of the members of Exco, will relay community issues to Exco and then to council for approval.
Kaunda said the revenue billing system, refuse removal, and problem buildings will get priority from the new leadership.
Over the past few months after the city switched the system that bills ratepayers for electricity and other services, many people have come forward with bills that sometimes went into millions of rands.
The city has also had to deal with refuse not being collected in its biggest township, uMlazi after private contractors said they were not getting paid.
Mxolosi said by-laws are to be adhered to, and that it was no use to have by-laws that were not adhered to.
The “how” part of the Radical Economic Transformation needs to be dealt with as it was unacceptable to have people attacking project sites demanding 30% of the budget for the project, he said.
“You can’t have that. That is anarchy so we need to deal with the “how” part of implementing the programme. We have been inundated with messages from people to clean up the streets. We also need to establish a task team within the municipality to address gender-based violence. We just buried children who were killed by their father - you can’t call yourself a man if you kill children,” Kaunda said.
The meeting was ongoing.