Durban - KwaZulu Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala has finally intervened in the affairs of the beleaguered Msunduzi Municipality, setting up a special team to investigate the financial affairs of the capital city-based local authority. In a shape up or ship out broadside, Zikalala told the city’s councillors and officials yesterday that “it is time to shape this municipality up or be prepared for dire consequences”.
In a statement, he said he had urgently met with the municipality in response to a persistent outcry from local communities, business and various other sectors about a “perceived dysfunctional state of the municipality”.
“We are extremely concerned about the view in the public domain that this municipality has collapsed,” Zikalala said. “Daily we hear that challenges of electricity are even threatening industrial operations, and therefore (sic) jobs and livelihoods of citizens.
“Projects affecting the community are not receiving adequate attention. No day goes by without billing challenges being reported. Waste removal has attracted the tag of our capital city as the ‘filthiest’,” he said.
“We cannot afford service delivery becoming a daily nightmare for residents and customers of Msunduzi. We stand here to say enough is enough. If it means we have to be on a collision course with those who have made it their trade to destabilise this municipality, we are prepared to collide with them.
“This city can no longer afford administrative inefficiencies and a culture of impunity where people do not account for what they are employed to do. We are now taking drastic actions to be here and operational in this municipality, to bring an end to the woes facing this municipality,” said Zikalala.
He added that residents’ confidence in the municipality had to be rebuilt “so that people can pay for municipal services and solve the cash flow problems imposed by the incapacity to collect revenue”.
“From today, things must be done differently. We must send a message that we will have no mercy with anyone whose agenda is to render this municipality dysfunctional,” he said, adding he would be engaging further with business, religious leaders and traditional leaders.
The city’s revenue has been badly affected by the theft of electricity and water. A recent report by the administrator, Scelo Duma, found that more than 50% of its services were being stolen.The municipality’s ballooning debt stands at more than R4 billion, with the water debt alone at R2bn. The city procures water and electricity in bulk, but is unable to recover its revenue because of rampant theft.
The municipality revealed that it suffered a loss of R214 million in electricity due to illegal connections, infrastructure vandalism and inaccurate reading of meters.
The report compiled by the municipality assessing the theft of electricity, has found that there were more than 20 000 prepaid electricity meters that have been illegally by-passed. It found that there were 34 062 prepaid meters in the city.
Of these, only 13 141 consumers were purchasing electricity coupons, and there were 20 921 consumers with prepaid meters that were not purchasing electricity.
It also found that there were 1 298 consumers with credit meters that were suspected to have by-passed the meters and were not paying for what they consumed.
“The electricity department must audit each property not purchasing electricity, or that has a suspected tampered with or by-passed electricity meter,” said the report.
The Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics (MARRC) said yesterday in a statement that service delivery had deteriorated significantly over several years.
It said this had resulted in widespread consumer frustration and anger.
The organisation said it was opposed to the 5.35% tariff rate increases proposed by the municipality. Instead, it said due to the state of service delivery, it was proposing a 10% discount across all services.
The organisation said in 2020 it had submitted a case study report and proposals to the municipality detailing many billing errors and examples of inefficiency, incompetency and maladministration.
“To date no response has been received to this submissio,n and thus evidently none of the proposals to improve service delivery, customer satisfaction or increase revenue from defaulters/illegal consumers have been implemented."
MARCC said while residents experience poor service delivery, public servants continued to receive full pay, increases and 13th cheque bonuses.
It called for a moratorium on bonuses to be revisited annually in line with improved service delivery, and for a moratorium on salary increases for middle and top management and councillors for the equivalent period that the municipality remained under administration.
The Mercury