Durban - Religious leaders in Pietermaritzburg have welcomed the engagement with Msunduzi Municipality leadership on Tuesday.
This comes after Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla held a meeting with them to discuss issues facing the city, including lawlessness, drug abuse, homelessness and economic issues.
The engagement had leaders from different religious backgrounds in Pietermaritzburg.
Thebolla said the purpose was to discuss the role religion and spirituality can play in overcoming the challenges facing the city.
The mayor urged all those involved in the engagement to commit themselves in creating better communities.
“I want us to realise that we are responsible and should be accountable for the lives of our children and the youth at large. Let us begin in our homes and raise our kids accordingly and this will further create a city where young people lead a better life,” he said.
Pastor Angie Zuma from the KZN Women’s Forum said the engagement had given them an opportunity to address issues faced in the city.
“We are not only looking into issues faced in the church but in society, so we ensure that the city goes back to its original form,” she said
The pastor added that they made their suggestions, which the municipality said it would implement into rebuilding the city.
Other matters highlighted were the need to have clean toilets, and to support street vendors to find ways to help them play their part in keeping the city clean.
Thembinkosi Ntshangase, secretary of the KZN Interfaith Forum, described the engagement as one of the best dialogues the city has ever hosted,.
‘’We have seen that our opinion is valid and we are at a point where we will ensure that the engagement which we had yesterday will grow. We offered our services for the municipality to involve us in any implementation which they may need. We have offered our churches to be of service for any community outreach,’’ he said.
Pastor Sipho Mdluli said while the invitation was not clear in its purpose, they were glad that as religious leaders they got a chance to address issues they had seen being faced by society.
“We hope in the next sit-down we will be able to have concrete plans which will help address issues which have made our city so dirty. We thank the government and its leadership for such a sit-down and we are hopeful that plans and ideas generated here will be of good use,’’ he said