eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda has assured the business community that despite the damaging public protest by the metro’s workers, the municipality remains stable.
He was speaking at a post-State of the Province (Sopa) stakeholder engagement hosted in Durban on Tuesday morning.
The city workers have been on strike since last week. The strike has resulted in extensive damage to the city infrastructure, threats and intimidation to workers who are not striking, and a collapse of services such as refuse removal.
Addressing the attendees at the event, Kaunda said: “Ladies and gentlemen, despite the ongoing illegal industrial action and the severe damage that was caused by the recent floods to our infrastructure, we are a city at work.
“We want to assure you that eThekwini Municipality remains stable, functional and financially sustainable. For the past five years, this municipality has been receiving unqualified audit opinions. Our collection rate continues to be above 95%, which is within the National Treasury norm,” he said.
Kaunda said eThekwini is one of the few metros in the country that do not owe Eskom and continues to honour its financial obligations with regards to bulk purchases from uMngeni-uThukela Water.
He urged the attendees to work with the government in improving lives. “We want to reiterate that the task of building a better life for all the people of KwaZulu-Natal requires a collective effort. We strongly believe that it is only when we work together as social partners that we can be able to address all developmental challenges that are confronting our province.”
He spoke on the work being done to improve service delivery, “We are acutely aware that the provision of uninterrupted electricity and water supply is critical for businesses to grow in the city.
“It is for this reason that over and above the programme of upgrading our electricity infrastructure to deal with power outages, we have started a process of procuring renewable energy from independent power producers (IPPs). We are confident that this initiative will go a long way in building an energy-secured city.
“To improve water supply in the municipality, we have taken a bold decision to invest over R2 billion annually to upgrade our water and sanitation infrastructure. Currently, contractors are on the ground to repair 10 wastewater treatment plants that handle over 90% of the total wastewater generated by the eThekwini metro,” said the mayor.
The Mercury