DURBAN - A REPORT on the state of the Msunduzi Municipality by former administrator Scelo Duma paints a picture of a council that is struggling to deliver on the most basic of services, like keeping the city’s streets clean.
The first few pages of the report detail what it lists as “persistent challenges” faced by the municipality. Some were part of the concerns that led to the municipality being placed under administration almost three years ago. The problems persist despite the intervention.
They are partly the reason some opposition parties have claimed that despite years of the municipality being under administration, they have seen no improvements and are now calling for the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to take over.
Duma after several years at the helm, resigned recently and Martin Sithole is the new administrator. It was reported at the time that Duma had resigned on account that the municipality was ready to manage its own affairs.
However, his report paints a different picture of the state of the city.
Under persistent challenges faced by the municipality, the report points to cleanliness as among the challenges that continue to plague the municipality.
“Failure to clean the city and surrounding nodal and residential areas including irregular collection of solid waste and challenges associated with the processing and disposal of solid waste,” is among the problems the report lists.
The report also speaks of other basic service delivery issues that include:
– Failure of key infrastructure, such as electricity and water due to poor/ inadequate maintenance, age and vandalism.
– Failure to attend to the repair of potholes, street lights and stormwater drains.
– Failure to contain costs associated with support services such as security and external consultants.
– Persistent poor and unreliable billing of customers for services rendered and rates.
– Poorly functional customer care unit and inadequate communication with residents, business and the public at large.
It found that the electricity infrastructure in Msunduzi was in a bad state, resulting in frequent and prolonged outages.These outages have a “disastrous” impact on the revenue of the city, the economy and residents’ well-being.
The report said that in addition, “critical loads such as hospitals, oxygen producers, water reservoirs and water treatment plants are affected, triggering environmental issues and threats to life. Residents of the city are affected negatively, for example, losing their groceries, unable to work and study from home, especially under the current pandemic.”
The city’s ratepayer organisation said the report pointed to the fact that the municipality had not moved forward since it was put under administration.
Earlier this month, the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics (MARRC) wrote to the Presidency asking for the national Cogta to take over as it believed the intervention by the provincial Cogta had failed.
Anthony Waldhausen, the chairperson of the association, said at the time that since the municipality was placed under administration for the second time three years ago, there had been no improvement.
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said the municipality needed funds to turn around the situation.
“I understand the problem, there is no money. Without money, one cannot do anything. We have people sitting in offices earning salaries but doing no work because there is no money for them to do the work,” he said.
DA councillor Ross Strachan said: “We can’t keep discussing the same challenges after three years of administration, and while we have our third administrator.”
Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said the municipality was working hard to address the challenges, and that the key challenge was addressing the matter of revenue and billing.
He disputed some of the findings of the report, especially around the state of the city’s cleanliness, saying this was one of the reasons the city was placed under administration and the city had done a lot and invested a lot to improve the waste management process.
“That one (on lack of cleanliness) I dispute 100%. While we have not reached 100% coverage of the municipality when it comes to collecting waste as there are rural areas that we have not reached, we have done a lot to improve waste management holistically,” he said.
Earlier this month, the provincial Cogta Department said a dedicated service provider would soon be appointed to assist the municipality to stabilise its electricity supply over the next two years.
The department said the move forms part of an aid package to assist the battling municipality to restore its service delivery capacity and ensure that it is financially sustainable.
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