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Today, 29 November 2023, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini officially submitted a motion (see attached) to dissolve the eThekwini Municipality Council to its Speaker, Councillor Thabani Nyawose.

The motion is submitted in terms of section 18 (1) of the rules of order and section 34 (1) of the Municipal Structures Act. Section 34(1) Dissolution of municipal councils provides that (1) A municipal council may dissolve itself at a meeting called specifically for this purpose, by adopting a resolution dissolving the council with a supporting vote of at least two-thirds of the councillors.

Our motion is also informed by the following aspects and developments which are critical to where eThekwini finds itself:

Financial Mismanagement:

- Low spend on infrastructure maintenance: eThekwini is not spending enough to service, fix and maintain its ageing and broken infrastructure. The result of this form of neglect, over several years, is what has become our daily norm ie: water shortages, electricity cuts among others – not to mention our iconic sewage headaches.
- The level at which eThekwini maintains its infrastructure is well below the required asset management ratio of between 10%-20%. eThekwini records a dismal ratio of 5,5%. When it comes to repairs and maintenance the city records a poor 2,2% which is well below the norm of 8%. The city needs money, and lots of it, yet it cannot achieve this very crucial role of collecting it. Given the arrears deficit, the city should be collecting 102% of its debt, with collection rate of 92% required to balance the current year’s budget. However, come October 2023, this dropped to a low of only 88%.
- The city is drowning at a total debt amount of R27, 8 billion. This has gone up by R6 billion as of October last year.

Water services failures:

- The eThekwini municipality faces huge amounts of losses due to illegal connections, burst water pipes and water leakages. The city currently records a water distribution loss of 55,61% when compared to a benchmark norm of between 15% - 30%. Of the 88% overall debt collection, 66% pertains to water alone, thus only 66% of the 45% water that is supplied is actually billed.
- Water meters not being read which leads to inaccurate billing. In October alone 519 553 meters remained unread, of which 71 149 have not been read for more than a year – meaning 71 149 customers are getting inaccurate bills every month.

Electricity:

118 053 meters were not read in October 2023 while more than 14 426 meters had not been read for year, meaning over 14 426 customers have been getting inaccurate meter readings.

Housing:

Only 397 units have been delivered against an annual target of 1 652. At the end of the previous financial year, real time audit red flagged a number of non-compliance issues and eThekwini was instructed to return R34 million to KZN Department of Human Settlements.
The Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda and his EFF and NFP coalition partners, have failed dismally to lead a proper turnaround strategy as was promised in eThekwini. Service delivery has continued to decline steadily. The Residents of eThekwini Municipality deserve a stable, caring government that will provide progressive service delivery to all its residents.

In our motion we have therefore recommended that:

1. eThekwini council be dissolved in terms of the Municipal Structures Act to be tabled and debated at a meeting for this purpose; and
2. And once this motion is debated at Council and passed by two thirds majority, new by-elections must be held in eThekwini.

We again call on opposition parties to support The DA ‘s calls on every opposition party in the city to join us, join our residents in the city who have been abandoned and totally neglected by the ANC.

Issued by Councillor Thabani Mthethwa - DA eThekwini Caucus Leader