EThekwini Municipality Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda has issued an apology to the residents of Umhlanga and Durban North for the inconvenience they suffered during water shortages due to infrastructure challenges last week. Picture: Tumi Pakkies/ ANA
Durban — The DA caucus leader in eThekwini, councillor Thabani Mthethwa, has stressed that the DA in eThekwini had the added responsibility of making sure that the governing coalition of the ANC and the EFF delivered services to the people of eThekwini.
This comes after eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the DA was gradually becoming a political party that thrived on amplifying the City’s challenges with the sole purpose of obfuscating the work being done to resolve the issue.
Kaunda claimed that the DA amplified the 8-day water outage that residents were subjected to in uMhlanga and Durban North last week. It was discovered that the problem was caused by alleged tampering with municipal reservoirs in Durban North.
Kaunda said that as the eThekwini leadership they wanted to reiterate their commitment to ensuring that all residents of the city got uninterrupted services every day of the week, without fail.
Mthethwa said it was the DA’s job to expose the corruption, looting and incompetence of the ANC/EFF coalition. Mthethwa said the DA will always fight for the people to get the services they deserve.
“Kaunda cannot expect the DA to partner with him in destroying the economy of the city, or the lives and livelihoods of the people of eThekwini,” Mthethwa said.
Kaunda said that as a proactive and preventative measure, teams would be installing pressure gauges at strategic points on the bulk aqueduct pipeline, and these would be linked up with their telemetry system to monitor reservoir levels.
The City was continually resolving water challenges, Kaunda said, especially in the rural areas. In areas where there is inadequate water infrastructure, the municipality has prioritised funding for the drilling of boreholes. Teams have started drilling boreholes in ward 03 in Umzinyathi; ward 105 in Mfume, ward 59 oGunjini and ward 108 eNyoni and the Mkhumbane area.
ANC Exco member councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said the DA’s accusations were misdirected and that instead of working with the City, the DA chose to oppose everything the municipality was doing to change the lives of the masses for the better.
EFF caucus leader councillor Themba Mvubu said that their working relationship with the ANC had nothing to do with the DA’s allegations, but was all about providing proper services to the residents of eThekwini.
Kaunda said the City was going to spend a massive R28 million on demolishing the fire-damaged China Emporium building following a protracted legal battle with the building’s owners. The City would give the building owners a period of 30 days to repay the amount used for the demolition, failing which they would pursue the matter in court, he stressed.
“Numerous attempts to engage with the building owners to initiate the demolition process proved fruitless. Our officials have commenced with a process of finding a suitable service provider to demolish the building,” Kaunda added.
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