ETHEKWINI MAYOR’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS (SOCA) Outlines plans to build a better city for all

Executive Mayor: Cllr. Mxolisi Kaunda

eThekwini Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda delivered his muchanticipated State of the City Address (SOCA) on 26 April at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre. During the address, he outlined the Municipality’s financial position, progress on capital projects, and setting the agenda for the year ahead.

He said the City has identified the following key five priorities:

• Building adequate infrastructure to improve service delivery

• Job creation

• Skills development

• Fighting crime to create safe living spaces

• A resilient social solidarity economy

“In this regard, we stand before you to bring hope and renew the people’s contract by presenting bold and tangible interventions that will ensure no one is left behind,” stated Mayor Kaunda.

A RESILIENT CITY

Mayor Kaunda said: “We are happy to see the economy bouncing back and returning to pre-COVID-19 growth levels. This can be attributed to the Economic Recovery Plan.”

“Businesses that were forced by the hard lockdown during COVID-19 to halt operations have reopened and retained many jobs. In addition, during this period, we were able to attract foreign direct investment of close to R4 billion.”

Regarding infrastructure damaged during the floods, the R1.5 billion flood relief grant has been received in addition to the R185 million that came six months after the floods. This will be used to address damaged roads, bridges, stormwater systems, human settlements, and sanitation infrastructure.

The city prides itself on having five private hospitals, two government hospitals, including the largest state hospital in the North West Province and 15 clinics including mobile clinics. It also boasts the only fully contained oncology unit in the North West Province, which offers a comprehensive service at four pathological laboratories and has the latest MRI scanner at the radiology unit.

Speaking on the recent floods, the Mayor said 8 000 families who were displaced were moved to 120 mass care centres are now in safe family-friendly accommodation. Plans to build permanent houses for them are also advancing. The City is preparing 15 parcels of land for this purpose. This will yield 3 500 sites that will benefit people in emergency accommodation. Planning is underway and the sites should be completed in August this year. The on-site construction for services and top structures is scheduled to start in November 2023.

The building material for 576 families affected by the floods has also been supplied. In the current financial year, the Municipality will deliver 19 800 housing opportunities through the construction of new and upgraded community residential units, rectifying pre and post-1994 houses, and eradicating transit facilities.

He said the City was accelerating the implementation of catalytic projects, which include Cornubia Integrated Human Settlement and Greater Amaoti Housing Projects to address the housing backlog.

Speaking on the migration of people from rural areas to the city in search of jobs and economic opportunities, the Mayor acknowledged their plight, and said eThekwini would look at ways to engage the neighbouring municipalities to resuscitate their economies through the District Development Model. He said that eThekwini currently had 600 informal settlements.

The Mayor stated that over the past five years, the municipality had delivered multiple housing opportunities that included:

• acquiring more than 21 230 hectares of land for housing development;

• provided internal infrastructure engineering services to more than 7000 sites from various projects;

• provided over 22 891 incremental services sites to the various informal settlements within the city;

• built 15 026 houses for qualifying beneficiaries under various housing programmes, as provided in the Housing Code 2009;

• re-built over 800 houses that were affected by the storm disaster, among other things.

He said the municipality will also issue title deeds to beneficiaries of the subsidised housing programme. The City also offers three months’ grace period to pay bills. “In line with the principles of the Freedom Charter, that there shall be houses, security and comfort, the City prides itself for providing subsidised housing units to the poor,” the Mayor said.

WATER AND SANITATION

The City has completed 11 flood-related water projects in various areas. “Together with Umgeni Water, we are finalising plans to upgrade the Southern Aqueduct, which will provide these areas with a reliable supply when completed. The project will cost over R900 million,” he said. He said contractors are repairing two major wastewater treatment works in Umbilo and the Northern Wastewater Treatment Works in Sea Cow Lake.

To improve water accessibility in areas with water network challenges, the Municipality is procuring 55 new water tankers to add to the current fleet. The construction of