Durban - eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda is confident that he is on the right track to turn things around in the City, but opposition parties are not convinced.
This week Kaunda marked the first anniversary at the helm of the City and reflected on the progress he made and the challenges along the way.
He was appointed along with his deputy, Belinda Scott and Speaker Weziwe Thusi following the arrest and subsequent recall of his predecessor, Zandile Gumede.
They were expected to turn things around after the municipality was embroiled in corruption allegations and poor service delivery under Gumede’s administration.
Gumede and other senior City officials, including Sipho Nzuza, are facing corruption charges in relation to the R400million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender.
Among the issues the mayor had to deal with was the fight against corruption, resolve the waste collection problems in Umlazi township and labour issues within the Durban solid waste unit which led to protest.
Kaunda said one of the key priorities was to stabilise the City and reposition it to respond better to challenges of service delivery, economic growth and job creation.
Regarding the corruption, he said they had ordered an audit on all Covid-19 expenditure to determine the level of corruption.
“We will support all the work by our law enforcement agencies to uncover any wrongdoing and we want all those who will be implicated by the report to face the full might of the law.
“We say this because we warned our officials against the squandering of the Covid-19 relief fund,” he said.
This week the Hawks raided several properties belonging to City employees as part of the investigation into the tender fraud and corruption amounting to R700m.
In Umlazi, he said the insourcing of refuse collection services has improved the situation and the City has developed a phased approach as a long-term turnaround plan.
“The reasoning behind insourcing was to ensure similar service standards of refuse collection in Umlazi with other areas of the municipality.
“We have since made progress in stabilising services by initially clearing illegal dumps which were accumulating over months and were becoming an eyesore and posed serious health hazards to Umlazi residents,” he said.
He also mentioned other progress made in infrastructure development saying some had to be halted due to Covid-19. He admitted that while they made some changes, a lot was still to be done and called for co-operation from other stakeholders.
Nicole Graham, DA caucus leader said Kaunda’s administration has failed to cut corruption, maladministration and to improve basic service delivery.
“There has been a moment of promise, for example, the reappointment of the finance committee has been a positive step. But line departments have completely lost the plot when it comes to basic services.
“There is still no transparency when it comes to how the City is dealing with corruption. We are told things are improving but when we try to put mechanisms in place to make the system more transparent, it is very difficult to do so.
“Obviously, the lockdown has hammered the economy but the mayor talks a big game but delivered very little in terms of what he promised.
“I don’t think it is that good at structural changes that have a meaningful impact,” said Graham.
Mdu Nkosi, IFP leader, said Kaunda was “blowing his own trumpet” but has nothing to show.
“The City was not unstable, it was more of infighting of the ANC.
“There is nothing new he has done or implemented, all the progress he made was already approved by the council before his arrival,” said Nkosi.