DURBAN - THE Durban City Hall is set for a million rand facelift that will include renovations to the building and installation of equipment to curb the spread of the Covid 19 virus.
The eThekwini Municipality revealed that the cost of this upgrade would be about R1.1 million.
The upgrade was approved during a full council meeting yesterday.
In a report, the council sought authority to reprioritise the City Administration Unit Capital budget to fund critical upgrades and maintenance work in City Hall.
The report said the City Hall was a heritage building and the municipal headquarters, and therefore it needed to be kept to a good standard.
“Capital Budget reprioritisation will ensure availability of funds to undertake upgrade and maintenance work, thus addressing identified risks, ensuring compliance with building regulations, health and safety requirements, as well as enhancing operations,” the report said.
The breakdown of the spending showed that R300 000 would be spent on professional fees, R111 000 will go to the replacement of CCTV/ Cables, R150 000 will go towards the installation of Covid-19 screens, R300 000 will go towards building renovations, and R300 000 will go towards the upgrade and installation of air-conditioners.
The proposal received support from most political parties.
Tholithemba Mthiyane from the EFF said they commended the municipality for investing in ensuring that the work area of councillors was safe.
The IFP’s Mdu Nkosi said City Hall was one of the most important structures in Durban.
“What is of concern to us is that large amounts of money is spent to renovate City Hall and, in a short time, you find that things start breaking down.
“We wish the city to employ people qualified to do renovations,” he said.
The virtual full council meeting yesterday was hampered by technological challenges, which caused extensive delays to the meeting, as councillors struggled to communicate, while some could be heard eating. This brought complaints that they were undermining the council meeting.
At one point in the meeting, some councillors called for it to be abandoned but the leaders of the council resolved that they should look at the important items and address those, and defer the rest of the items.
Some councillors also complained that they had been unfairly muted from the meeting by administration staff.
The meeting dragged on and, by the afternoon, many councillors seemed to have disengaged.
The Mercury