Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda is expected to deliver the city’s consolidated budget, as well as announce property rates, electricity and water price increases for 2024-25, on Friday. (Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Ratepayers in eThekwini have demanded a breakdown of the municipality’s spending of R8.6 million on a slew of public events, including two picnics and a hip-hop festival.
The events were proposed for sponsorship during a council meeting.
The eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement has launched a citywide boycott of payment of utility bills, including municipal property rates, water and electricity accounts and the movement’s representative, Asad Gafar, said residents had a right to know exactly how the money is being spent on the events, such as expenditure on food, entertainment and venue hire.
The ratepayers movement started its boycott of utility bill payments after it called a dispute regarding the municipality’s 2023-24 budget in June. It called for ratepayers to transfer the money they would have used to pay their accounts into a private trust account where it would be preserved until the dispute with the city had been resolved.
According to a recent council decision circular, the municipality’s executive committee recommended that authority be granted for the deputy city manager: community and emergency services to approve sponsorship and implement “programmes related to arts and culture, health and commemoration of national holidays” in the 2023-24 financial year.
This included programmes “aimed at addressing issues directly affecting communities including youth, senior citizens and the community at large”.
“The overall objective is to invest in the people of eThekwini; embrace cultural diversity; and investing in community; social; and sustaining the city’s natural resource base … The cluster through implementing these programmes ensures that existing infrastructure is used to benefit eThekwini citizens in terms of developing arts personnel, developing arts and sporting infrastructure where communities live and interact creatively to stimulate economic growth,” the council document said.
It said the programmes are aligned with the city’s Integrated Developmental Plan (IDP).
Listed among 10 highlighted events costing R8.6 million with estimated budgets were:
- The Youth Hip Hop Festival in partnership with Richie R Entertainment CC (R2 million);
- Doek on Fleek picnic (R500 000);
- Ubuso Wamaciko (R1 million);
- Gcwalisa Picnic in partnership with Indlamlenze Development Foundation and MGSM Solutions Pty Ltd (R2 million);
- Sebenza Women’s Awards (R1 million);
- 503 Youth Music Festival (R500 000) and the Durban Spin Festival in partnership with Omni Evolution Expo (R500 000),
- Mother of Golf days at Mount Edgecombe Country Club (R350 000); and
- Nomfundo Moh (R300 000) and Girl Child Boot Camp that will include experts from the health department, motivational speakers and pastors (R500 000).
But ratepayers have questioned why the city is spending millions on entertainment when the city’s water and sanitation infrastructure is collapsing. This has led to repeated water cuts caused by burst pipes and beach closures after high levels of E coli were detected in river and sea water.
“Firstly from our standpoint, [the R8.6 million spending on events] is totally unnecessary when the city is falling apart. R2 million is being spent on a picnic; we have a right to know exactly how it is being spent and they have a responsibility to let us ratepayers, and everyone know exactly what those costs are. They [the council] are living in a bubble,” Gafar said.
eThekwini did not respond to repeated requests for a breakdown of the budgets for the events and for details regarding to whom the contracts to organise the events were being awarded.
In an earlier statement, the municipality said it was investing a total of R10.9 million “in an array of community upliftment programmes by investing in growing the creative industry which suffered financial losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, and several additional health and national holiday programmes.
The municipality said the programmes will “promote different music genres and create an enabling environment for upcoming developing artists within the city”.
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said sponsoring the events was a major boost to the economy and that big cities around the world have adopted similar strategies.
The ratepayers movement is embroiled in a Durban high court battle with the municipality after it filed an application to force the city to reconnect the electricity of five residents who joined the citywide utility boycott. Judgment has been reserved.
Gafar said the city had, in recent weeks, continued disconnecting residents in terms of its credit control measures and the movement received “calls every day from about 10 people” who had been disconnected. He said ratepayers were hoping for a precedent setting judgment.