Durban’s mayor doesn’t have a clue

RETURNING from a recent trip to Rwanda, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni was all praise for the cleanliness of the capital city, Kigali.

In August last year I was in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe and was impressed with how clean the city was.

Street traders were designated special areas to trade and the people were friendly, helpful and took pride in their town.

Here in Durban, our central business district is filthy, decrepit and crime-ridden.

Our mayor, Zandile Gumede, is spending millions of rand on Jacob Zuma to record his Struggle songs. And the former president is not even a ratepayer or resident of Durban – he lives in Nkandla.

Zuma’s sprawling homestead, costing more than R240 million, was paid for by South African taxpayers.

Now ratepayers of Durban are being forced to fork out R25 million to pay for his new singing career.

Recently the city spent millions sending the taxi industry for a holiday to Brazil – to learn nothing.

The Hawks are investigating allegations of corruption and fraud related to the awarding of a R45million refuse collection contract to four contractors in 2017. The R45 million was meant to cover six months of operations but was depleted within a month.

This is state capture at local government level, where the politically-connected divert resources to benefit themselves, their families and friends.

The city of Bulawayo has many challenges, but in its seriousness in carrying out a public cleanliness programme, it shows that it can make a decision, implement it and carry it through to success.

Unfortunately for the citizens of Durban, we have a mayor who doesn’t have the faintest idea what her priorities are and squanders millions and millions of rand on frivolous projects while the city decays. LINDIWE DLAMINI Sydenham