Call for ratepayers’ ‘pressure campaign’ against eThekwini Municipality

A Durban resident has called on the city’s residents to implement a 'pressure campaign' against the eThekwini Municipality to get the metro to deliver improved basic services.

Durban City Hall. File Picture: Terry Haywood.

Published May 16, 2022

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DURBAN - A DURBAN resident has called on the city’s residents to implement a “pressure campaign” against the eThekwini Municipality to get the metro to deliver improved basic services.

Nivern Chetty says residents should inundate city officials and councillors with emails and phone calls about service-delivery problems in their areas, saying it was up to residents to force the city to improve its service delivery.

Chetty has been on a one-man “pressure campaign” writing emails to city officials demanding his area to be better serviced. A few days ago, he had raised concerns about the state of Percy Osborne Road in Morningside, saying it was filthy.

The Mercury reported recently about his call for better services after he photographed city workers allegedly “relaxing” mid-morning when they should have been working.

The workers were from the Durban Solid Waste (DSW) unit and the unit took exception to the claims that its workers were taking unauthorised breaks, saying there were other possible explanations, including that they could have been waiting for transport to go to work at different sites.

Chetty wrote several emails raising concerns that streets in his area were not being swept and on many occasions he had seen DSW staff relaxing or walking in the dirty streets with their brooms on their shoulders.

His pressure campaign comes as Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda warned there was no space in the city for lazy workers. Chetty said after raising concerns about the services in his area, he had seen an improvement.

He has now turned his attention to other areas that he said were suffering from the malaise of poor service delivery. “We are paying too much (in rates) and getting zero service delivery. We need to put pressure on the municipality, make those phone calls and write the emails for them to deliver services, every community member must do that, do not wait.

“I have now turned my attention to the Newlands area, Newlands West was a once upcoming prime neighbourhood, filled with families who wanted better living conditions.

“My parents first moved to the area in 1991, and it was absolutely pristine. In my years growing up in Newlands, I witnessed many amazing accomplishments by previous ward councillors.

“Fast-forward to today, Newlands West is one of many residential areas throughout eThekwini that has fallen into disarray, 80% of street lights do not work, verges on every single road coming into Newlands from Inanda Road are overgrown,” he said.

He said the streets in the area were full of litter, the public pool has been abandoned, and there were broken kerbs on almost every main road.

Responding to the litter issue, DSW head Raymond Rampersad said the municipality was attending to it, adding that the public should bring problem areas to the city’s attention.

“Give us the street names of the affected areas. The city is also dealing with a crisis following the floods.”