Durban — According to the eThekwini Municipality, its ratepayers and residents’ associations have committed to working with the City to address service delivery challenges.
In a statement, the municipality said its leadership continues to strengthen collaboration with the City’s ratepayers to accelerate service delivery.
This was after mayor Mxolisi Kaunda and council speaker Thabani Nyawose met eThekwini ratepayers and residents’ associations in Phoenix on Friday evening.
The associations represented areas such as Chatsworth, Clare Estate, Queensburgh, Reservoir Hills, Phoenix and Verulam, the municipality said.
It said that the ratepayers appreciated that the leadership of the City made time to meet them to discuss pertinent issues concerning development and service delivery.
The overarching message was that, “eThekwini belongs to all of us and we need to make it work. We know that some of the issues won’t be fixed overnight. The time to forge partnership is now to resolve the challenges facing our residents”.
The municipality said some of the issues raised during the meeting included ageing infrastructure, refuse collection, and water and electricity outages. The municipality has set up teams of plumbers to fix water leaks and sewer spillages often caused by the abuse of sewer infrastructure.
Kaunda committed to intervening in service delivery challenges raised by the associations.
He also said that at the end of the engagements with ratepayers, the City will attach service delivery champions to each association who will be intervening in service delivery challenges in various areas.
“This will be supported by the new zonal service delivery model which entails the clustering of wards and adequate allocation of staff that will fix service delivery complaints promptly.
“The City has also prioritised the budget to purchase jetting machines to address the challenges of sewer spillages. Recently, we have unveiled a new fleet of grass-cutting tractors to clear overgrown verges and to keep our parks clean,” Kaunda said.
The issue of environmental design is critical in fighting crime and therefore the City must ensure that it keeps all street lights on and makes roads traversable in suburbs, townships and rural communities, he added..
Nyawose stressed the importance of holding regular community meetings by ward councillors to listen and respond to the complaints of the community timeously, working with City officials.
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