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)
The boycott of rates and municipal bills by a group of eThekwini residents will continue as long as their dispute with the city remains unresolved.
eThekwini Ratepayers Movement (ERM) representative Asad Gafar has, however, welcomed the announcement on Friday that the city is reshuffling its budget, and that repairs to flood damaged roads and water infrastructure will begin.
Highlighting the outcome of a full council meeting held on Thursday, during the handover of a new R28 million water reservoir in Shongweni, mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said the municipality was in discussions with ratepayers to find solutions to their problems.
“We are confident that through these engagements, no ratepayers organisation will persuade residents to boycott the payment of rates. Apart from boycotting rates being illegal, residents cannot withhold payment for services that have been rendered,” Kaunda said.
He said the city held a follow-up meeting with the Westville Ratepayers Association last week and had found “common ground” regarding some issues.
The council had approved the revision of the municipality’s electricity tariffs for 2023-24 to a 15.1% increase, a reduction from 18.49% — an issue ratepayers have repeatedly raised during their boycott.
“These are some of the interventions the municipality is making to meet its ratepayers halfway because we recognise the tough economic climate which makes many households unable to meet their monthly financial obligations,” Kaunda said.
But he defended the awarding of a R3.9 million annual salary — just R200 000 less than President Cyril Ramaphosa’s — to municipal manager Musa Mbhele, saying it had been approved by the council pending the approval of Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thembi Nkadimeng.
“Currently, the city manager’s remuneration package is far below that of his peers. We wish to reassure residents that the city manager’s salary is in line with the upper limits of remuneration packages of municipal managers,” Kaunda said.
Responding to concerns raised by ratepayers that councillors and city employees owe the municipality for services, he said the debt would be deducted from their salaries and credit control measures and disciplinary action would be taken against them.
“We want to make it categorically clear that our staff members are not allowed to be in arrears for more than 90 days in their municipal accounts, according to schedule 10 of the staff Code of Conduct,” he said.
He said the issue of irregular expenditure that the auditor general has consistently raised against the city — a total of R50 billion over the past five years — was being addressed through the implementation of the city’s Irregular Expenditure Reduction Strategy. The strategy focuses on automating the contract management and procurement cycle, compliance checklists, demand analysis and strengthening of key budget and internal controls.
“We also have an oversight by the Financial Misconduct Disciplinary Board which expedites disciplinary processes for irregular expenditure incurred by errant officials and service providers. However, what we have observed is that most of the irregular expenditure we have incurred, services were rendered. The only challenge is that in some instances, officials failed to follow all supply chain management processes. This does not mean that money has been squandered,” Kaunda said.
He announced that the city has approved 115 water and sanitation projects to be completed in eight months using R200 million in flood relief funds received from the treasury. He added that the city had major plans for the redevelopment of the beachfront.
“It will soon boast upmarket developments which form an integral part of the city’s Proactive Land Release Strategy. In North Beach … the Bike and Bean will transform into North Beach Lifestyle — a world-class restaurant — and the popular Circus Circus is currently being renovated to a stunning fusion of Africanism and Art Deco and will be named Durban Beach Café,” he said.
He said the new fusion restaurant, expected to open in October 2023, would create 45 jobs after construction.
Mini Town will also undergo a transformation comprising a mixed-use R170 million hotel development with spaces for arts and crafts, kiosks for small businesses, retail, a salon and spa and restaurant.
Gafar said the pressure ratepayers had placed on the city had led to it taking action, including the announcement that steps would be taken against staff and councillors who did not pay their bills. The city had reshuffled its budget to meet their demands, he said. However, he said the dispute ratepayers had filed with the city in June remained in force.
“I can say from our side the engagements with the city are still ongoing but I don’t believe we have reached a resolution as yet. The boycott is still on and will continue while we are still in a dispute,” he said.
Gafar said it was important that ratepayers had organised and put pressure on the city to take action to fix infrastructure.
“An association like ours is now making the city do what it is supposed to do — reorganise the budget to meet demands for infrastructure repairs. There are a whole lot of things [that need to be done] but one of the most important is that they have now changed the electricity tariffs to 15.1%. We had pointed out that in order to do this they needed to have a council resolution but the tariff was already implemented on July 1,” he said.