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The Democratic Alliance (DA) will be writing to National Treasury, the Public Protector and provincial government to seek interventions in Msunduzi's complete disregard of destitute residents, two years since the December storms.

The DA has also constantly been on the ground to provide information whilst the ANC-led Municipality has been nowhere to be found. We also followed up efforts to keep communities informed with a request for an urgent Executive Committee Meeting to discuss the crisis in December last year, however, our calls were completely disregarded.

This left us with no option but to ask for intervention from the Provincial Government, who eventually put together a task team to assist in the crisis.

Early into the new year, the Mayor decided to call a special Executive Committee Meeting, where the DA made several recommendations that were supported by the Executive Committee:

• That an independent investigation into the causes of the Northdale Substation explosion be carried out and the prolonged turnaround for this crisis to be resolved.
• That a designated claims desk be established to deal with all legitimate claims from the residents affected.

These recommendations were resolved and approved in the January 2022 Full Council Meeting, but never implemented.

Months later a report was submitted to Council Structures stating that all Claims were dismissed due to the Municipality investigating the crisis, and finding that there was no fault or negligence from the Municipality through a technical report which was crafted by our own electricity officials.

This was challenged and opposed by the DA before council as it was against the resolutions passed in January's full Council Meeting where we resolved to initiate an independent investigation and designated Claims Desk for residents to submit for their losses.
A recent Executive Committee Meeting report that was furnished by our Internal Insurance Department detailed a response from Msunduzi’s external Service Provider. This report ultimately sought to provide feedback on the claim made by the Municipality regarding the Northdale Substation.

It is of grave concern that off-late contrary reports from the external Service Provider have dismissed claims lodged by the Municipality due to a number of factors in terms of non-compliance (including preventive measures in place) from their own independent investigation.
The DA expressed its concerns that the Municipality had misled the residents and had also misled Council in their manufacturing of their own findings to avoid responsibility.

Yet another December has arrived and no progress has been made to ensure that these liabilities of dilapidated Infrastructure and capacity within our departments are arrested.

The DA will continue to strive for better governance and to ultimately ensure the communities of Msunduzi are protected from the ANC'S ineptitude to execute basic services.

Issued by Councillor Ross Strachan - DA Msunduzi Caucus Leader