Report reveals that eThekwini only managed to meet three out of 14 basic service delivery indicators
12 January 2021
A report to members of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) portfolio committee has revealed that the Ethwekwini metro only managed to meet three out of 14 basic service delivery indicators during the over the past three months.
The comprehensive report was presented by eThekwini Deputy Mayor Belinda Scott and senior municipal officials during a committee meeting held on Friday 8 January.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is extremely concerned by the contents of this report. While residents of the city have become accustomed to substandard services, the most recent report shows an even further declining state of affairs. Particularly worrying is that even the most basic service delivery issues are not being attended to with a knock-on effect on the economy, the health of residents and the environment.
Some of the municipal targets which have not been met include;
- Refuse collection
Target: 100% collection in 24hrs
Achieved: 63%
- Restore water outages due to burst pipes
Target: 95% restoration within 24hrs
Achieved: 11%
- Sewage blockages
Target: 85% restoration in 24hrs
Achieved: 28%
- Repairing street lights
Target: 100% repaired within 5 days
Achieved: 62%
The DA acknowledges the impacts of the current Covid-19 pandemic on municipal employees and the effect that this may have had on service delivery. However, there are also long-term issues that exist within the Metro which are still not being dealt with and which have a long history of hampering service delivery.
In this regard, we call on the eThekwini municipality to urgently resolve the following issues;
- Urgently address ongoing supply chain management issues which are hampering service delivery and project implementation
- Improve turn-around times on water burst related matters to minimize this exorbitant fiscal leakage
- Plan and budget more effectively for natural disasters which are becoming more frequent and intense with climate change. This includes improving the time taken for National government to release funding to the municipality
- Resolve the Mobeni Heights crematorium matter. The time taken is completely unreasonable and this must be dealt with as a matter of urgency
- Urgently intervene in terms of Capital grant expenditure which is below the required targets at this point in the financial year so that this funding is not sent back to Treasury
- Implement a Memorandum of Understanding between eThekwini and the KZN Department of Transport to alleviate the fiscal burden of the municipality having to pay for repairs to provincial roads. Funding must follow function
- Review the Extended Public Works programme (EPWP), which is nothing more than an ANC loyalists employment programme, that is crippling certain departments such as DSW
- Implement a special task team to deal with dismal sanitation statistics which are a health and environmental disaster and;
- Upgrade the municipal call centre with proper resources and properly trained staffed. This facility is letting residents down during times of disaster or when residents need service from the city.
As KZN’s only metro, its largest population centre and the economic hub of our province, it is crucial that eThekwini functions optimally. The DA will continue to fight for improved service delivery for the poor and value for money for the city’s rate payers by holding the majority party to account and providing solutions to the challenges plaguing the city.
Issued by Chris Pappas, DA KZN Spokesperson on CoGTA, 12 January 2021
