City’s citizens get the short end of the stick

AS ONE ponders the activities of the ethekwini council, it is clear the mayor and executive committee (Exco) live in a parallel universe.

How does one explain the lack of debate on the staff increases and other items on the council’s budget?

Deputy Mayor Belinda Scott was once a paragon of virtue, but appears to have lost her moral compass.

The mayor is a non-entity who is too invisible to add any meaningful

debate to the staff increase controversy.

We have a heartless council whose public representatives have suffered no declines in their income during this Covid-19 pandemic. Our city’s citizens are struggling to pay their utility bills and are being pummelled by huge increases for electricity, water, refuse and rates.

The refrain that the increases were agreed to at the bargaining council is an insult to any thinking person. The wage agreement was concluded when there was no Covid19 pandemic and is not cast in stone. Reverse those increases.

The government walked away from the public servants’ salary increase agreement, yet council and its staff are treated like some holy cow. It’s time Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma intervened to knock some sense into this very stubborn exco.

The National Treasury should also get involved.

To the many ANC supporters, please keep the behaviour of your councillors in mind when you vote in the next local government elections. This is the same ANC that has become embroiled in corruption at the highest echelons and still wants to saddle its poor citizens with outrageous utility increases. PAKS PAKIRIY | Durban North