Water surcharge not used, says city
AN accumulative amount of R234 million that has been collected for water and sanitation development in eThekwini is yet to be used.
This was revealed to POST by the city, after an enquiry was made about the water and sanitation infrastructure surcharge.
Gugu Sisilana, the eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, said the surcharge, introduced in July 2022, would end in June 2026.
She said the income from the surcharge had been budgeted for functional upgrades to the various waste water treatment works, which are in the final stages of supply chain management processes.
Both domestic (residential) and non-domestic (institutional, commercial and industrial) customers are billed a monthly cost of R1.50. Yet, according to Sisilana, no infrastructure upgrades have been done.
Opposition parties in eThekwini commented on the matter.
Shontel De Boer, the DA spokesperson for water and sanitation in eThekwini, said the current state of water and sanitation in the city was dismal and worsening over time.
“With water loss rising and no proper plan in place to reduce it, the city is losing more water than they are selling. Poor response time to bursts and leaks only adds to it.
“One cannot drive down the road without seeing water or sewage running down the street. The more residents pay, the worse the service delivery becomes.”
She said poor planning, illegal connections, and lack of consequence management were some of the challenges in improving water and sanitation in the city.
“Mismanagement of funds, poor budgeting, bad contract management and bad planning are the order of the day. The infrastructure upgrade needs urgent intervention. Proper plans and contract management needs to be implemented. The city needs to look at better procurement processes and management.
“Unless there is in depth oversight into the spending of this R234 million, the money will be part of the unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in this financial year.”
De Boer said tighter measures needed to be implemented to ensure supply chain management kept in line with the Municipal Finance Management Act and national regulations.
Zwakele Mncwango, the KZN chairperson of ActionSA, said he was not confident the city would deliver on its promises to improve eThekwini’s infrastructure.
“What happened to all the disaster relief money that the city was given but had to be returned due to a lack of capacity to effectively utilise it?
“With the almost total collapse of services in the outer areas, the city is going to be forced to make budgetary decisions that are a direct result of their mismanagement of the city over the last 20 years.
“The city is plagued by political infighting across all business units. A lack of skills and cadre deployment has resulted in an inability to provide for the needs of the residents and to uphold the city’s own promise of being the most caring city by 2030.”
He said the only solution was to remove the ANC.
“They have consistently failed to deliver on their promises and have continued to engage in behaviour that has resulted in criminal charges being laid against many of their top officials. Remember, as well, there have been no prosecutions leading from the publication of the Manase Report over 12 years ago.
“There is simply no consequence management in eThekwini, and therefore, no chance of the city improving the lives of their residents. People in Durban are still using the bucket system and pit toilets.”
Mzwethu Gwala, the eThekwini IFP whip for the human settlements and infrastructure committee, said the IFP was disappointed with the way the committee was running things, citing poor communication as a challenge.
“Not long ago, we requested a water and sanitation workshop, which the committee agreed to. They had communicated in a meeting last month that the workshop would take place on September 5. However, this did not take place. We have had no communication since. No one has addressed us as a committee informing about any progress or challenges that the organisers had.”
He said water and sanitation issues were concerning to most councillors in the city. “As the IFP, we appeal that there must be a whips’ meeting urgently to discuss this issue and make sure the workshop takes place with immediate effects. This is an important step in making us understand the issues of water and sanitation so that we may come up with the recommendations to improve the city.”