R185,000 party to thank paid volunteers riles KZN ratepayers
● KwaDukuza residents are hopping mad over an upcoming R185,000 red carpet event to thank paid volunteers for fixing potholes and cutting back overgrown verges.
This after the cash-strapped municipality, on the north coast between Durban and Richards Bay, sought approval from its council last week for marquee hire, red carpets, décor, transport and gifts for a “five-star” awards ceremony to recognise 250 individuals who are to participate in a Masakhane programme rolled out this week.
The volunteers are meant to work on pothole patching, street light repairs, verge maintenance, waste removal and stormwater maintenance.
Opposition parties and ratepayers opposed the expenditure, deeming it a blatant disregard for the pressing service delivery issues plaguing ratepayers. However, it was approved.
DA councillor Tammy Colley said the approval for the R185,000 “appreciation event” was an insult to residents and ratepayers who are paying for services they do not receive.
“These small programmes all add up to substantial amounts of public money being spent on events that do not improve the realities of the residents of KwaDukuza. The municipality is facing several issues, including grass-cutting, potholes and dysfunctional street lights. Instead of diverting the money to resolve these issues, the municipality decides to hold a ‘thanksgiving’ event for such a huge amount,” said Colley.
“The municipality leadership doesn’t care about the residents. They don’t do their jobs
— they get volunteers to do them — and then spend money to thank them for doing their jobs.”
Colley said leaders were using state funds for political point-scoring yet had service providers contracted to carry out the duties.
One of the volunteers who spoke to Sunday Times while collecting grass clippings in the town said they were approached by their local councillor who asked them to volunteer and get “some money”. She wouldn’t disclose further details.
“We don’t know about any event planned for us. We are here only because we asked to come work for three days and will be paid something. Probably that appreciation ceremony would be a surprise but if there was such, we would have known by now,” said another volunteer.
Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association deputy chair Deon Viljoen said the function was an example of the municipality’s wasteful expenditure. He said that when he raises service delivery issues or proposes feeding schemes for poor communities, the municipality says it doesn’t have a budget.
“Yet there seems to be sufficient budget allocation the minute there is something that is a photo opportunity or self-appreciation. We understand you need to recognise volunteers, but you need to do it in a less costly and smarter way.
“We do a lot of volunteer work with communities and we have never held an event thanking them. We send a thank you note or messages and that’s it. A lavish event to thank volunteers is a disgrace.”
KwaDukuza local municipality mayor Lindile Nhaca was seemingly clueless about the event. However, her spokesperson, Siphesihle Ngobese, said the event was going ahead, possibly next week. “The item was approved by the council and aims to recognise whomever the mayor wishes to recognise as part of the programme.”
Ngobese said the programme included municipality staff from different departments and volunteers from the community.
Nhaca said the municipality had serious service delivery issues and was in a financial crisis.
“We do get complaints from residents about dodgy work and that was a serious issue. With grass-cutting, they have service providers who do the job but there was a serious lack of monitoring on the municipality’s side,” said Nhaca.
In the past two years, the municipality has received about R1.3bn from the National Treasury after the 2022 floods. But the municipality had to apply for a rollover of funds as the money was not allocated and spent, and only half of the infrastructure was fixed.
Nhaca said the municipality’s services were affected by business forums that are stopping several projects. “The city manager had a meeting last week with all contractors and those who are not performing were put on terms and they might be terminated. We don’t want to lose this funding because we are failing to spend it,” she said.
Meanwhile, the town’s finances were affected after the chief financial officer, Shamir Rajcoomar, was suspended last year.
Rajcoomar’s disciplinary hearing was halted when he was granted an interdict for two separate high court motions. The two matters include an application for civic groups to be granted public access to the disciplinary hearing, and records that point to alleged irregularities in the council process to suspend him.
This week the council appointed a second acting CFO, Sibusiso Chonguene, pending the legal outcome.