Durban — Ward 58 residents who have raised concerns with the eThekwini Municipality about service delivery issues are unhappy at the City’s lack of action.
Local Councillor Geoff Pullan said that during a ward committee meeting, multiple issues were raised – no individual feedback on ward 58 problems; poor state of ablution facilities at all 10 informal settlements in the ward; the casuarina trees falling in windy weather in the Thuthukani settlement; and the low ward committee stipends.
“Apparently other metros pay substantially higher stipends,” said Pullan.
Street lights were being poorly maintained/serviced throughout the ward and formal and informal settlements, commercial and industrial, urban and rural, municipal and provincial roads were all poorly serviced.
Shintshani experiences all of the above problems mentioned in the aforementioned areas. New Glasgow Road has roads in awful condition. Thundertown, Ezeweni in Magwaveni RDP housing scheme area and Riverview, Drive In; all have terrible access issues,” said “The access roads in informal areas such as Lungelani have been reported to be in poor condition. Pholani’s formal access road is full of potholes. Thuthukani’s short access tracks are almost unusable; Coniston’s access tracks are eroding. Hilltop has potholes and is in poor condition.
Pullan said all the sewer pump stations were spewing sewage into the rivers and streams and then into the sea, the road verges and parks were not attended to and the outdoor gyms were in a poor state.
“Municipal buildings are generally not looked after and the opportunity for the local community to fix up and use the abandoned toilet block at the beach at Westbrook Beach is minimal. There’s huge erosion at the La Mercy lagoon where the shop is being undermined and much of the parking area and lawn has disappeared. There are constant water and electricity outages in many parts of the ward,” said Pullan.
He noted that the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) was meant to create jobs for residents within the ward, but those positions were occupied by non-ward residents.
Pullan said, “This means these workers travel in from elsewhere, taking taxi fares and time to get to ward 58. That is why many of them arrive late and leave early.”
Pullan said that the committee would like the Speaker’s response to the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB), on the possibility of ward 58, 61 and 62 being removed from eThekwini.
eThekwini spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo said all issues raised should be reported to the relevant departments for assistance and a reference number.
“It is difficult to respond to issues without specifics.”
However, our teams do their best to respond to matters that are reported,” said Khuzwayo.
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