Ethekwini mayor gets stick from eMdloti resident over flood rebuild

From left, councillor Geoff Pullan, Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda and head of the city’s stormwater unit Greg Williams address residents in Bellamont Road in eMdloti. Picture: Jehran Naidoo/Independent Media

From left, councillor Geoff Pullan, Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda and head of the city’s stormwater unit Greg Williams address residents in Bellamont Road in eMdloti. Picture: Jehran Naidoo/Independent Media

Published May 26, 2022

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Durban – eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda and his team had to face a flurry of questions from an aggrieved eMdloti resident whose complex suffered major damages during the recent floods.

Kaunda, deputy mayor Philani Mavundla and the head of the city’s stormwater unit, Greg Williams, visited eMdloti on Wednesday.

Residents in Bellamont Road, in the DA-controlled Ward 58, were hit by mudslides during the heavy rains at the weekend which caused homes to collapse and wash away.

Residents believe the sand was from a property development at the top of a hill overlooking the eMdloti residential area.

Kaunda said that pointing fingers was not going to help solve the issues residents were facing, and that it was a natural disaster on a large scale. He also noted that they have been without water and electricity since the weekend.

But the mayor wasn’t met with warm smiles, as a resident fired questions at him and Williams about the rebuilding process. The man, who did not want to be named, is a resident of the Surfside complex on Bellamont Road.

Surfside had 98 units but only about 60 are left and damage assessments continue.

Williams said the city had contracted Devru Civils and Leomat Construction to install “the Rolls Royce” of pipes that would, in the future, trap water flowing down the embankment and safely channel it towards the beach.

The resident asked Kaunda: “You expect us, as the council, that this building gets down from 96 to 68, and you expect those 68 people to pick up the slack for the other 28 that are being demolished. You expect them to pay their rates and taxes?

“Do you expect them to pay for everything else while you guys come to an executive decision?

The mayor told the man that the government would have to deliberate further on the matter.

“We appreciate your input sir but we have got to be guided by how we do our business and how we respond to you as residents. So we appeal to you to give us that time and we can’t just take a decision on the spot here as the mayor.

“This is not how we run the government. We need your patience because we are going to come back to you with responses on these matters. We are still finalising our assessments,” Kaunda told the man.

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