We can rescue eThekwini if we dissolve the municipality

29 January 2024

Note to editors: Please find below speech from DA KZN Provincial Chairperson, Dean Macpherson, and DA eThekwini Caucus Leader, Thabani Mthethwa, delivered during today’s media briefing (View here, here and here) about the party’s motion to dissolve the eThekwini council.

Please note supporting documents of motion submitted on the 28th of November 2023 (view here) and letter to the Speakers office on 29 November 2023 (view here).

Good day ladies and gentlemen,

The Democratic Alliance would like to brief members of the public and the media since our pronouncement in 2023 that we would seek to dissolve the ANC-EFF run eThekwini municipality.

Every day that goes by and every further crisis that the people of this city are forced to endure at the hands of uncaring political parties and dishonest officials, only further strengthens our case for the urgent action that the DA has proposed. The root cause of this chaos is due to the political instability which is run through an unholy alliance between the ANC, EFF, NFP and small parties which are political extensions of the ANC.

We can also never forget those parties which voted the ANC into power in 2021 and they must share responsibility and take accountability for the mess that has been created since then. They include MOSA, AdEC under Visvin Reddy, DLC, the ACC under Imtiaz Syed, ALJam-ah and the MF.

This means that committees and council meetings often collapse due to a lack of quorum if the EFF can’t get its way.

It also allows officials accused of corruption and maladministration to never face disciplinary proceedings because politicians with vested interests in keeping these officials in place will engineer the collapse of meetings to protect their patronage networks.

It is evident to everyone across eThekwini that there is no leadership. We have a mayor who is more interested in his singing and dancing career, and who happens to go missing at the exact moment that another crisis hits the city. This has remained the only thing he has been consistent at doing since 2021.

We have a City Manager who jumps to the political instructions of the ANC and EFF in order to protect his job.

Under his watch, maladministration, corruption, and dodgy deals have blown out of control.

He has zero authority over his Deputy City Managers who do as they please and all without consequences.

The Head of Water and Head of Electricity should have been fired a long time ago and yet they remain in their posts while residents continue to suffer from blackouts and water cuts.

A simple thing like a municipal call center where residents can log complaints is now an impossible task for the municipality.

Water meters remain unread, residents are over and under billed and then given bills that run often in hundreds of thousands of Rands.

EThekwini loses R2 billion a year in water revenue because more than 50% of the water that is supplied to the city is stolen or lost through bursts and leaks.

When it comes to budgets, they are often not spent, and money is sent back to National Treasury despite the desperate need for service delivery in the municipality. But when it comes to parties and concerts, the municipality never misses and opportunity to find the money in the form of sponsorships or outright cash payments.

The DurbanGO! Public transport system has completely disintegrated, despite the Mayor saying it would be up and running by October in 2023. This will never take off despite the billions of Rands that have been spent on it.

The complete collapse of eThekwini has crystalized over the last 2 weeks in the unending water cuts in the north of Durban.

Residents in Verulam have been without water for over 100 days. Residents in Phoenix, Tongaat, Mount Edgecombe, Parkgate, Trenance Park, Ottowa, Glenashley, Durban North, La Lucia and Umhlanga now have daily water outages, all without warning.

There can be no doubt that the water system has all but disintegrated and yet not one politician or official is being held account, especially the Head of Water, Ednick Msweli.

The DA fully understands and appreciates the frustration and anger being felt by residents who live in these areas which has seen near daily protests.

The political leadership, City Manager and Head of Water have been entirely absent and only came out of hiding after relentless pressure by the DA when they addressed residents on Saturday in Phoenix, except they offered no solutions and sought to praise themselves for doing such a wonderful job.

Motion to dissolve eThekwini:
It is very clear that the DA has a strong case to dissolve the municipality. It is a belief shared by many people across the city, no matter what their political persuasion may be.

That is why we have been engaging with communities across eThekwini to tell them about the motion to dissolve the municipality and have fresh elections.

We have engaged with civil society as well and who have supported our move to give the residents of eThekwini an opportunity to rescue their city.

It is for this reason that the DA has also reached out to other opposition parties to support our motion and we are pleased by the support we have received.

However, we must make one thing very clear. The DA will not engage the EFF nor will we solicit their support for our motion.

It would be hypocritical and political opportunism of the worst order to ask the very same people who are responsible for the destructing of our city to then be part of the solution.

While we note another opposition party cannot rid themselves of their obsession to work with the EFF, the DA remains a sober party rooted in principals and consistency.

We will not abandon voters who voted to keep the ANC and EFF out of power. And so if anyone wants to work with the EFF, then they are welcome to but it certainly won’t involve the DA.

Current status:
During consultations with the Speakers office at the end of 2023, the DA was of the view that the motion would be debated and voted on at the first Council meeting which is set to take place on Wednesday, 31 January 2024.

Our motion was duly submitted on the 28th of November 2023 (view here) and followed up with a letter to the Speakers office on 29 November 2023 (view here) pointing out that a separate council meeting called specifically to only deal with this item must be called. This could theoretically take place after the Full Council meeting on Wednesday.

It has now transpired that the Speakers Office is deliberately trying to frustrate this important democratic provision and has “confused” the original motion and the letter by the DA Chief Whip as being two motions. This is clearly not the case and nothing other than an excuse for not wanting to hold the council meeting to consider the motion to dissolve it.

The ANC speaker and politically aligned officials cannot run away from this motion. We believe they have taken this course because they are not assured of the EFF’s support after comments last week that the EFF was undecided on how to vote on the motion.

We also believe the ANC itself is not sure how its own Councillors will vote due to MK infiltrating their caucus and eThekwini structures. We know that the ANC have suspended 3 of its Councillors for working with MK. However, the ANC cannot allow its own internal politics and insecurities derail this process.

The DA is putting the ANC and eThekwini Municipality on terms that if they do not schedule a Council meeting to specifically debate and vote on this motion, we will consider our legal options.

The DA has shown that we will not hesitate to approach the courts to uphold democratic rights and we will not shy away from seeking personal cost orders against politicians and officials.

Conclusion:
The DA’s decision to put table a motion to dissolve the eThekwini Municipality and save it from the disastrous leadership of the ANC and EFF, and incompetence of the City Manager and senior officials is the correct one.

We have also been informed by the support we have received from residents across the city and from many civic organisations for which we are incredibly grateful.

The DA believes that eThekwini can only be rescued through giving our city a fresh start as well as working with like-minded political parties, and by joining hands with community organisations that do so much good work in Durban.

We call on those parties that would use this motion to posture for relevance and votes ahead of the general election to not waste this opportunity in the pursuit of soundbites and headlines. The future of millions of people is too important to embark on petty politics.

The many disasters that have befallen our city can be fixed.

It starts by dissolving the council and electing a new government that will put people above politicians.

It includes firing the city manager and deputy city managers and replacing them with officials who obsess about service delivery above the orders of their political party and instructions given out by mafia and gangsters.

The DA will also not accept or tolerate the bullying tactics of the ANC Speaker to delay this motion and we will use every available resource and avenue to ensure that the democratic rights of residents in eThekwini are upheld.

In closing, the DA wants to again recognise and appreciate all those community organisations that have been raising their voices and making them heard of late. This is crucially important to ensuring we rescue eThekwini.

We further want to recognize the residents of eThekwini who remain so committed to their city and who don’t give up despite the unbearable circumstances that the ANC-EFF government along with officials are subjecting us to.

The DA has never given up fighting for you and we assure you that we will not rest until we rescue this city and restore your dignity.

Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA KZN Provincial Chairperson, 29 January 2024