COGTA Minister Velenkosi Hlabisa told a press conference in Durban on Tuesday about plans to rebuild the eThekwini metro. (Des Erasmus/M&G)
TCooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister (Cogta) and Inkatha Freedom Party leader Velenkosini Hlabisa on Tuesday said efforts by the two teams tasked with turning around the struggling eThekwini metro were progressing well.
After viewing the presentation of the President's eThekwini Working Group and the team's “credible report”, the first produced since its inception, and a presentation by the eThekwini metro, he said he was “pleased” with the direction of the work being done.
“We will be examining these reports… and will come back in a month or two to discuss the issues in depth. [in the reports] “We will also present a recovery plan,” he told reporters in Durban.
ANC New Durban mayor Cyril Shaba also attended the closed-door meeting but did not attend the press conference.
President Cyril Ramaphosa established the eThekwini Working Group in February following numerous complaints from members of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (which represents more than 3,000 formal businesses and 54,000 informal traders), taxpayers' associations, civil society and trade unions.
The team, led by former member of the European Parliament and former ANC KwaZulu-Natal deputy speaker Mike Mabuyakul, will support the municipality for two years.
Another group making an announcement on Tuesday was the Section 154 Intervention Team.
Discussions of a full-scale intervention in the capital municipality have been ongoing for years but have been consistently blocked by the ANC, then dominant in the capital and provinces. The ANC also rejected proposals made by former mayor Mike Sutcliffe, former executive director Cassius Lubisi and Thandeka Ellingson of the Moses Kotane Institute, who were tentatively selected to lead the intervention.
The Opposition parties were simultaneously seeking intervention under Article 139, which would effectively brand the metro as dysfunctional and in need of administrative control as it was failing its constitutional and administrative obligations.
A compromise was finally reached when the opposition settled on the ANC's proposed, less debilitating, Article 154 intervention, but even here there was little movement.
In June, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, the new IFP Cogta MEC for KZN province, said section 154 intervention would be implemented following the finalisation of a power-sharing agreement in the province after the ANC lost its majority in the May elections. He said Sutcliffe and Lubisi had been appointed as governance experts to lead the process.
Asked on Tuesday about possible overlap in the work of the two teams, Hlabisa said the presidential working group and the Article 154 team should work in an “integrated” manner.
“Both teams want to turn eThekwini around and create an enabling environment for businesses to thrive and for the municipality to deliver services. From Cogta's perspective, we fully support the integration and collaboration of all those who are stepping in to turn eThekwini around,” he said.
Exactly how that integration would work is still being worked out, he said, adding that both reports addressed “core needs” such as revitalizing the city's tourism and economy. That revitalization depends on “effective government” that can maintain infrastructure, provide drinking water and keep residents safe, he said.
“If we don't address these important issues, business will flee.”
He said a rise in the latest Durban business confidence index to 55.49 out of 100 was a “very good sign.” The national index for the same period was 35. Last quarter, the Durban business confidence index was 38.42.
The improvement is said to be due to the fact that no party won a majority in May's elections, forcing parties to form coalitions.
“The ease and speed with which government was established in KwaZulu-Natal demonstrates the political determination to deliver services in the province,” the business confidence report said, but added that more than 75 per cent of those surveyed still said their complaints about service delivery were not dealt with within an appropriate timeframe.
The eThekwini metro has been in disrepair for years, with fraud, corruption, water and power outages, E. coli-infested beaches and inadequate or non-existent service provision regularly making headlines.
According to the city's Department of Water and Sanitation, the city loses 45 percent of its water through leaks and waste, and neglected infrastructure continues to create obstacles for businesses, residents and potential investors.
The Auditor-General's consolidated report on the municipality found that eThekwini had made R4.8 billion in irregular expenditure in the 2021-22 financial year, as well as a further R48.3 million in wasteful expenditure.
In 2018-19, the metro recorded R2.9 billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Waste collection in the city came to a halt in late February and March this year after a long strike by city workers following a pay dispute led to piles of trash piling up on the streets and protests from residents and businesses.
Prior to this, rubbish collection in the city had been irregular for years, grass was not mowed or sprayed with herbicide, thousands of street lights were not working and still are not. Crime in the city and its suburbs has been described as “out of control” by opposition parties, residents and local policing forums.
Public confidence in the eThekwini intervention
Questioner Mail & Guardian On why residents and investors should trust that the recommendations of the Presidential Intervention Team and Section 154 Team would be implemented, given the city's response to the Manasse report commissioned by KZN Cogta in 2011 and published in 2013, Hlabisa said on Tuesday he was under the impression that both teams knew the city well and understood what the city was working on.
He said that as the city is part of his constituency he knows the city and what it needs very well and that he will “study the report himself.”
“Where there is a need for consequence management, that must be done,” he said.
He said the recommendations of the section 154 report, once finalised, would be “considered” by the provincial-level cooperative governance department and the KwaZulu-Natal government, and the national department would also assist with any necessary consequence management.
Hlabisa said any further questions about the Manasseh report should be referred to eThekwini mayor Cyril Shaba.
The 7,050-page Manasseh report, tabled in 2013, investigated the two terms of office of the ANC's former eThekwini mayor, Obed Mlaba. He was specifically featured in the report and clear evidence of wrongdoing was found, yet Mlaba faced no punishment and was instead appointed South Africa's High Commissioner to the UK.
The report, which cost R15 million to prepare, also contains evidence of internal corruption within metro police, numerous supply chain irregularities, non-disclosure of councillors' business interests and the use of bylaws to push through emergency tenders.
Chairing a meeting presented by the KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance department in 2020, then standing committee member for public accounts Marvin Dirks asked the team why the “corruption” in the Manasse report had yet to be addressed. The team responded that the report had been “addressed”, but it was unclear whether “consequence management” had taken place.
