Hope Ntanzi|Published
EThekwini mayoral candidates have called for better infrastructure maintenance, improved debt collection and greater accountability over municipal spending, as they debated how to prevent flooding damage and address the city’s ageing infrastructure.
During IOL’s Town Hall Debate on Wednesday, the candidates were asked how they would shift the municipality from crisis management to preventative maintenance and climate-resilient infrastructure, with discussions focusing on maintenance budgets, outstanding municipal debt, grant spending and project management.
EFF mayoral candidate Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi argued that eThekwini’s infrastructure problems predated the devastating 2022 floods and that the municipality should not use the disaster to deflect attention from years of deterioration.
Her position was that ageing infrastructure needed to be addressed through ongoing maintenance rather than allowing failures to continue.
The EFF has also proposed employing young people in municipal wards to identify water leaks, with training to help them carry out repairs.
ERPM calls for regular infrastructure maintenance
Asad Gaffar of the eThekwini Ratepayers Political Movement (ERPM) said infrastructure should be maintained throughout the year rather than repaired only after it failed, particularly when it came to water and electricity.
“Infrastructure is something that's supposed to be maintained on a year-to-year basis. We don't wait for it to totally fail and then bring about a process, especially when it comes to water and electricity,” Gaffar said.
He said repairs and maintenance had been removed from the current administration’s budget and needed urgent attention.
“Whoever comes into power, the most important thing is to ensure that repairs and maintenance are a regular thing and it must happen all the time,” he said.
ActionSA points to drainage and water infrastructure projects
ActionSA mayoral candidate Zwakele Mngwango said improved consumer debt collection would help the municipality increase the budget available for infrastructure maintenance.
He proposed establishing a permanent team to maintain the stormwater drainage system, which he said was contributing to the city’s problems when it failed to function properly.
“Our plan is to have a permanent team that is dealing with the storm drain system. Permanently ensure that we repair our infrastructure,” Nyawose said.
He said service providers needed to be properly resourced so teams could work around the clock to repair and replace infrastructure.
Mngwango also argued that cutting waste and stopping the write-off of millions of rand could free up money for municipal services.
MK Party calls for pipeline replacement and smart leak detection
MK Party mayoral candidate Thami Mkhize said the municipality needed to prioritise replacing ageing pipelines, introducing smart leak-detection systems, upgrading reservoirs and rehabilitating the sewer network.
He acknowledged that the municipality needed a budget to address its infrastructure needs but said replacing old pipelines and identifying leaks would help tackle the problem.
He said these interventions would help address the city’s infrastructure challenges.
DA questions debt and unspent grants
DA mayoral candidate Alicia Kissoon challenged the municipality’s financial management, arguing that infrastructure problems could not continue to be blamed on storms.
“It is actually easy to say that we have money invested, but the fact is that we have got 50 billion in outstanding debt and then we are taking a 2 billion loan to use in our capital expenditure, which tells me that there is a bigger problem than just infrastructure,” Kissoon said.
She questioned what had been done over the past 20 years to keep infrastructure in good condition, saying maintenance needed to happen before systems collapsed.
“You don't think about your infrastructure when it collapses. You think about it in advance,” she said.
Kissoon also criticised the municipality’s failure to spend grant funding, saying a grant had been returned because of backlogs in implementing projects.
She argued that replacing pipes would not resolve water losses if the wider system remained faulty.
“We cannot say that we are putting out pipes, but the taps are leaking. If you are going to be getting the same amount of water whether you put new pipes or not. We are losing the same amount of water, which is our system,” she said.
IFP calls for government departments to pay their debts
IFP mayoral candidate Selvan Govender agreed that revenue and debt collection were priorities but said the municipality should start by collecting money owed by government departments rather than targeting vulnerable residents.
“I agree. I think revenue collection and debt collection tops the list, but we must start with our own,” Govender said.
He said pensioners, elderly people and unemployed residents were often at risk of disconnections and having their meters removed.
“We are so quick to attack our vulnerable people, the pensioners, the elderly, the people that are unemployed. We want to disconnect them and remove their metres,” he said.
Govender called for government offices at national and provincial level to be prioritised in debt collection efforts.
He also called for stronger consequence management, transparency and accountability, criticising the lack of action over corruption and tender-related concerns.
“Consequence management and corruption, like we heard about the tenders. We just say these things. Action is not taken,” he said.
Minority Front questions capital spending
Minority Front mayoral candidate Shameen Thakur Rajbansi questioned the increase in capital spending, saying communities remained frustrated by infrastructure and service delivery problems.
Rajbansi said capital spending had increased from about R5 billion to R15bn and questioned why the municipality had failed to use money allocated to projects in previous years.
The candidate attributed the problem to poor planning and management, saying the national government had changed its funding approach because of the municipality’s record of failing to spend allocated money.
Rajbansi also criticised the use of municipal war rooms, arguing that they were not being used effectively to coordinate departments and ensure infrastructure projects were managed properly.
hope.ntanzi@iol.co.za
IOL Politics