Proud to be leaving a clean slate behind him
From humble beginnings, outgoing mayor James Nxumalo has worked hard and achieved much
‘IAM FROM a humble background and have had to work hard to reach the pinnacles I have reached.” Outgoing eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo, in an interview with The Independent on Saturday, said he believed one of the greatest legacies he was leaving, was that of education and service delivery.
“In 2015, we introduced the Mayoral Student Financial Relief Fund which offers bursaries to pupils who come from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure access to education. This fund provides deserving pupils with registration fees so they can access education, which constitutes lifetime empowerment of a young person,” said Nxumalo.
This year, the fund gave R5.4 million to more than 500 pupils for assistance with their studies.
And, just this week, Nxumalo launched a state-of-the-art Human Resource Centre of Excellence, which gives job-seekers access to 50 computers which they can use to search and apply for online vacancies.
“I have been passionate about educating the youth of my country.”
When citizens take to the polls for the local government elections on August 3, and with the ANC likely to retain control of eThekwini Municipality, Nxumalo will vacate the seat.
The ANC’s mayoral candidate for eThekwini is Zandile Gumede. Nxumalo said he would be leaving the city in “good hands”.
However, he felt improving service delivery was a key challenge when he took office in May 2011, and he had worked hard to ensure his team delivered on its goals.
“We have managed to construct more than 20 888 Breaking New Ground (RDP) houses, 4 944 houses built pre-1994 have been upgraded, 1 432 social housing units have been facilitated, over 746 new community residential units have been constructed, 153 gap houses have been facilitated, and 2 677 rental stock has been transferred to tenants.
“We have improved access to public services such as electricity, water, sanitation, roads, solid waste, community and emergency services, and free basic services.”
Nxumalo said he was also proud that the municipality achieved its first clean audit from the Auditor-General for the 2014/2015 financial year.
But it was not all plain sailing. Corruption was a problem.
“We have always taken a strong stance against corruption. The City Integrity and Investigations Unit played an integral part in rooting out and investigating allegations of corruption. The unit dismissed 51 employees found guilty in the last financial year and 392 matters were reported to the unit in the 2014/15 financial year. Of those, 208 investigations were completed, 13 people resigned while being investigated, 51 were dismissed, 39 were criminally charged and 82 companies blacklisted.”
One project he pushed was the Clean and Maintain My City campaign, encouraging businesses and residents to clean their part of the city.
“Like all developing cities, our inner city faces decay with its associated challenges, including by-law infringements, derelict buildings, litter, pollution and social ills. eThekwini is in the process of finalising its inner-city regeneration strategy.
“This initiative will continue even after the end of my term. Its success is not dependent on leadership, but it is a collective effort with business people, residents and visitors. We must all play our part in keeping our spaces clean,” he said.
Addressing the plight of homelessness was also high on his agenda.
“We have the Qalakabusha programme, which means “a new start”. It was born to help reunite homeless people with their families and reintegrate them to society.
“The Qalakabusha programme has yielded a number of successes. More than 1 200 people were seen and issued with yellow referral cards to access services at Denis Hurley Centre where screening and psychiatric social support is offered. Our social workers have screened and counselled 459 people, 109 drug users have been admitted to the Newlands Park Rehabilitation and Sitholimpilo Rehabilitation Centre in Port Shepstone.
“More than 40 people were linked to centres for job readiness life skills training, and 54 were involved in sports development programmes to facilitate rehabilitation and preparation for inpatient treatment.
“Around 35 people were involved in Wellness Centre Trust skills programme which took place at the Green Hub every Saturday for 12 weeks.We are finalising the construction of an alternative home for the homeless as well as street children, working with the social development and health departments,” he said.
And despite leaving the highest seat in the city in a few weeks’ time, “we can never say we have done enough. Service delivery will always be a priority. Regardless of our groundbreaking achievements in the past five years, we still have a lot of work to do. We still have challenges in human settlements. We need to improve on allocations policy. We need to up the pace of actual delivery in line with migration patterns, urbanisation and population growth.
“We also need to address the issues related to land invasion which is setting us back in terms of housing delivery. We need to balance the needs of our people in the informal settlements but also take into account the needs of those living in formal houses and backyard dwellers.
“Last, we must never again build houses without services no matter how pressing the circumstances. Other challenges are unemployment, inequality and poverty. Our purpose is to eradicate the challenges through service delivery and job creation.”