The leadership of the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM) says they are going strong despite some of their members having their utilities shut off by the city.

The group, previously under the banner of the Westville Ratepayers Association (WRA), had five members' utilities cut around 8 September, after embarking on a rates boycott, which they have labelled a "diversion campaign".

One member's utilities have since been reconnected, with the other four still battling to get their supply going.

ERPM leader Puvie Pillay told News24 the first person on their list for the diversion campaign was the first person to have their utilities cut. 

"Our members are not perturbed one bit, and our movement is continuing to grow," Asad Gaffar, one of ERPM's founders, said on Monday.

After their utilities were cut, Gaffar and others in the ERPM approached the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court in Durban with an urgent application to restore their services.

It has been almost a month since their application was heard on 14 September.

"We are still waiting for the judge's ruling. This length of time is indicative of the seriousness of our matter and implies that the many public statements by the city and others of the obvious 'illegality' of our protest were unfounded and hasty," Gaffar said.

He said they intended taking further legal action if they didn’t get a timeous response from the judge.

"Going forward we intend to launch further legal actions on general and specific issues relating to the budget and financial mismanagement within eThekwini Municipality," Gaffar added.

Thus far, ERPM has collected almost R2.5-million and about 257 people have joined its diversion campaign.

The movement has about 13 civic groups under its banner from various parts of eThekwini and is branching out into smaller towns in the north and south of KwaZulu-Natal.

Gaffar said their base was growing, largely because many residents felt hard done by due to the lack of proper services and conflated billing systems.

eThekwini has previously maintained that a rates boycott was illegal and said it wouldn't comment on the matter due to ongoing legal proceedings.

However, while eThekwini continued to try to fix its reputation of failing to consistently provide basic services, such as electricity and water, these issues persisted during the weekend and into Monday.

Large parts of the city were still battling with intermittent electricity and water supply, like most other metros in the country.

Water and electricity outages

For about two weeks, residents in the Lower Morningside area along Percy Osborne Road and even North Ridge Road, a key main road in Morningside, experienced water cuts.

Local councillor Ernest Smith told residents to stockpile water after a burst pipe on Connaught Bridge where a pipe was located in a section of the bridge itself.

"This section of pipe is in the bridge itself, which allows one man to work at a time. Taking into consideration that the infrastructure across the city is aged, I would assume that the pipe itself is corroded, which would add to repair time," he said.

By Monday morning, Percy Osborne Road didn't have water again.

By Sunday, the city was reporting power outages from the north to the south of the city, including Genazzano Road in Seatides, Bothas Hill, Lotus Park, Isipingo Hills, Umlazi Q-Section, St Wendolins in Savannah Park, Alverstone, Umlazi H-Section, the Verulam CBD, Nsizwakazi and Illovo.

By the middle and end of September, the city battled to even get water supply to one of the province's most affluent areas, Umhlanga, where residents went for about eight days without water alongside their Durban North neighbours.

The fault was blamed on the sabotage of an air valve.

The city's main beaches also took a battering ahead of the Heritage Day long weekend with at least two independent water testers showing high E. coli levels on nearly all eThekwini’s main beaches.

These types of issues have been ongoing, even before the April 2022 floods, and plagued the city, resulting in service delivery protests and general disdain from residents.

Facts and figures

News24 reported in 2022 that the Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs in the province opened criminal cases against the eThekwini manager of water and sanitation, Ednick Msweli, the former city manager, Sipho Cele, and the current city manager, Musa Mbhele.

The charges relate to the contravention of the National Environmental Management Act in Eiderwood Close and Phoenix as well as the Isipingo, Winklespruit and Umhlanga lagoons.

The city has also been flagged in a SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) report and several other municipalities for violating human rights in relation to water supply.

The SAHRC report, "KZN Water Inquiry", which investigated the state of water and its management in the province between 15 August 2022 and 19 August 2022 was released in September.

The municipality reported to the SAHRC that the impact of theft and vandalisation of infrastructure had led to a disruption in services.

According to the city, when plumbers and electricians were sent out, they had to be accompanied by security guards, which ate into its budget.

eThekwini spends R900-million on security and said the police were "not responding to violent protest action, let alone, these security issues".

The SAHRC report also noted the metro was using "forced disruption in supply to conserve water".

It further stated that eThekwini was not properly using its funds to maintain infrastructure.

"Money is being taken from fee-paying customers in formal settlements, without maintaining these services, to finance non-revenue residents in informal settlements," the report said.

While the city utilises grants from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs for infrastructure needs, this was fully spent on operational projects.

eThekwini also has a massive debtors' book to service.

It had to take out a further loan of R1.5-billion in 2022 and now has a total loan of R10-billion that it has to service.

Of its 23 wastewater plants and treatment works in eThekwini, 17 have run to failure and don't meet the necessary specifications, placing a burden on the city. The plants were designed for small-scale usage and are aging.

In February, the Auditor-General's office lambasted the city for the 2021/22 financial year.

The AG reported that the city had water distribution losses, which sat at 56.2%, meaning the city was losing more than half of its water supply.

Water losses had increased over a five-year period from 36.85% in the 2017/18 period to 56.2% currently.

The city purchased 401 527 498kl of water, but only sold 175 787 719kl.