eThekwini ratepayers have lambasted a decision by the municipality to spend millions to let the mayor go on a charm offensive through several imbizos and civic functions aimed at engaging citizens about their plans.
The proposal to spend R9m for public service delivery engagements was approved during a council meeting last Thursday at the Durban ICC when ANC and smaller parties aligned to it, edged ahead by 12 votes, despite the EFF voting against it.
The item was voted for by 92 councillors, while 80 voted against it. Eight councillors abstained.
This will see over R6.7m allocated for mayoral izimbizos and more than R2.4m for civic and ceremonial functions.
That has not gone down well with ratepayers’ groups in the city who have been in a public dispute with the municipality over failing infrastructure and basic services including water, lights and sanitation in the face of increased rates.
Westville Ratepayers Association (WRA) chair Asad Gaffer told TimesLIVE Premium that they found it unacceptable that so much money from the city’s limited coffers was being used to tell people what they had done instead of letting their work do the talking.
“They were supposed to do this [public meetings] to engage the community and get their issues before issuing a budget and let that budget guide them to respond to the cries of residents, but they did the opposite.”
Gaffer said city leadership were not even aware there were communities who hadn’t had water for three years until they brought it to their attention.
The municipality is now trying to “appease” people by spending millions in food handouts, but that will not cut it, Gaffer said.
“Residents really don't have money, we've been telling them that there are people especially in townships who are owing the city millions for services but really can't afford to pay them.”
Breaking down the part of expenditure during the council meeting, the DA’s Mzamo Billy said R3.2m was earmarked for catering, R781,580 for stage and sound, as well as R625,920 for artists and performers.
Imraan Bennet, of the eThekwini Residents and Ratepayers Association (ERRA), said spending so much money on “unimportant events” amounted to a “betrayal” of the ratepayers.
“What worries me the most is that whatever will come out of there won’t make any difference. We’ve lost confidence in the municipality because soon we’ll be told that there is no money without any meaningful reason of what it went to. There is no money for services and infrastructure yet we can spend R9m just like that?”
Bennet said that money could’ve gone a long way towards fixing some of the infrastructure challenges in the city.
“On top of paying rates, we are having to turn to our own efforts so that our families do not end up in dilapidated situations because the value for it doesn’t reflect on our everyday lives.”
The parties in favour of the proposal had argued during the debate that imbizos were necessary for all public servants, including the mayor, to account to its constituencies on the progress of service delivery projects and engage them on upcoming projects.
Patrick Pillay, leader of the Democratic Liberal Congress, said public participation was important for bringing local governance closer to the people.
“This is the opportune time to get the man in the street to come face-to-face with the leadership of the city and express their concerns and raise issues of public interest. It is important that the issues raised by the communities are taken seriously and the mayor needs to ensure that this happens to prove his critics wrong.”
However, opposition parties branded the proposal a “disgraceful use of ratepayers money”, according to ADeC leader Visvin Reddy.
“At a time when the city is in crisis with crumbling infrastructure and rampant crime, the allocation of such an exorbitant amount of money for a political rally is nothing short of outrageous.”
Billy said the DA viewed this as “another desperate move” to paint the mayor as someone who wants do something about people’s concerns.
The ANC’s Thembo Ntuli said the proposed amount was just an estimated cost of dealing with things that may come up and the council had systems in place to control financial outflow.
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