Service Delivery Drive tackles issues in wards 18 and 19
Tekwane South, Ntokozweni and KaNyamazane are next in line on the Service Delivery Drive (SDD).
The City of Mbombela's (CoM) campaign to accelerate service delivery is moving to wards 18, 19, 20 and 21. The CoM concluded its work in Mataffin, Rocky Drift and Msholozi (Ward 14), eMbonisweni and Backdoor (Ward 38). It lasted three weeks as rain disrupted the process.
However, some residents in these areas claim that not all the potholes had been repaired and the gravel roads were not attended to. Another common grievance is not receiving the water they had been promised. One of the huge potholes in Wilkens Street in Rocky Drift is still an eyesore despite numerous requests from residents and ward councillors for it to be fixed. They were hoping it would receive special attention during the SDD.
The CoM's municipal manager, Wiseman Khumalo, said the SDD started in wards 18 and 19 on Monday, April 14. Roads were gravelled and a blocked culvert cleaned. Potholes are being patched in KaMagugu, the road in Ntokozweni was regravelled, and faulty streetlights in Valencia's Fuschia Street, Ngwenya Street in KaMagugu and Dr Enos Mabuza Drive are being addressed.
ALSO READ: Gatvol West Acres residents demand immediate action
We are also going to cut grass in the public parks, roadsides and cemeteries. Inspections of fire hydrants on streets and in complexes are to be done. We are also going to work on road markings, traffic signs and signals. Enforcing the by-laws will be a top priority regarding illegal traders and illegal dumping, just to name a few,' he said.
Khumalo said priority lists were compiled by ward councillors. 'The municipality's responsibility is to make it happen by attending to their issues during the campaign and after.'
He also dismissed allegations that the CoM did not give its full attention to wards 14 and 38.
The CoM shifted its attention to wards 20 and 21 this week.
At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
3 days ago
- Daily Maverick
‘No problem,' says Joburg as R1bn tender goes to officials' families or friends
The City of Johannesburg defends the award of massive transport contracts to politically connected families, despite concerns from the Auditor-General and civic watchdogs A week after Auditor-General revealed that the City of Johannesburg had awarded R972-million in dodgy family-linked tenders, city spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane has confirmed that the metro government sees no problem and will not investigate. Six awards (or contracts) valued at almost R1-billion were made to the family of either a city official or councillor for the extension of the BRT/Rea Vaya bus system in 2023. The extension of the city transport service is eight years behind schedule, and a final deadline for the end of 2024 was also missed. 'There is no regulatory provision that prohibits the Municipality to award contracts to the category of people in question (spouse, child or parent of a person in service of state either actively or in the past twelve months). Therefore, the question whether the City failed in oversight and due diligence is misplaced,' said Modingoane. The Auditor-General has a different view. 'Although there is no legislation that prohibits municipalities from making awards to suppliers in which close family members or business associates of employees or councillors have an interest, such awards create conflicts of interest for these employees or councillors and/or their close family members or business associates. The possibility of undue influence cannot be discounted, especially if the person could have influenced the procurement processes for these awards, potentially creating opportunities for irregularities.' While Modingoane confirmed the awards were made for the BRT/Rea Vaya extension, he would not provide further details. He said the connected council official had not sat in on the award decision. Asked if the award would be rescinded or investigated, Modingoane said, 'To rescind such an award will be unlawful and the Municipality will be exposed to litigation risks as a result'. He said that the transactions had been disclosed in the city's annual financial statements as required by law, and no further investigation was necessary. BRT-Rea Vaya veers off track When cities commit to ending spatial inequality (which means that poor black people live on the outskirts while the middle and wealthy classes live in the city near opportunities and amenities), there are two ways to do so: provide transport for workers to get to economic opportunities or increase social housing near jobs. In Johannesburg, the rapid bus transport system was an innovative idea to mediate apartheid planning by making it cheap, easy and fast for workers living on the city's outskirts to go into town, to where they worked, or to get around. The city, which began as a gold mining town, was built along the ultimate apartheid master plan. Black people were housed in dormitory towns and suburbs far out of the white city in enclaves easily controlled by security forces if they resisted – the violent response to the 1976 student rebellion was the obvious example of how it worked. The BRT/Rea Vaya incorporates the taxi industry and co-owns two companies that run the system, PioTrans and Litsamaiso. The city pays BRT/Rea Vaya for trips made. The system has not been without conflict, especially with PioTrans. Its expansion to the north (the so-called Phase 1C) of the project has fallen prey to serial infrastructure and leadership weaknesses that beset local government, which Maluleke highlighted. The city has expanded north, and job opportunities are increasingly available in the new nodes. Phase 1C would almost double the number of buses and take people to where the opportunities are. But new stations lie dormant as delays have repeatedly impacted on roll-out. The weaknesses include corruption (as the R972-million contracts suggest), institutional capacity, effective project governance, ineffective planning, procurement and contract management weaknesses and a lack of accountability for poor performance. Maluleke's report lays bare all these factors. Phase 1C is eight years behind schedule, and the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) missed a pledge to get it running by the end of 2024. Daily Maverick regularly tracks the route to check, and progress is still far from complete. This detracts from the effort to end spatial inequality and get young people into jobs — Gauteng and Johannesburg have among the highest youth unemployment rates. Because it is subsidised, trips on the Rea Vaya are cheaper than other forms of public transport. Intervention delivers little Johannesburg is under soft intervention by the Presidency because of its rapidly collapsing infrastructure and services, but after 100 days, most residents say the impacts on the ground are imperceptible. In the past week, there have been multiday water cuts in the east of the city and power outages in the near west and across the inner city as underground fires roar through cabling. Last week, Mayor Dada Morero launched a 'bomb squad' to help him improve city management. MMC for Transport Kenny Kunene said, 'I have not heard anything about it (the R972-million dodgy tenders).' He said he would investigate and revealed that when he started his job in 2021, R23-million had been stolen from the BRT and officials had been suspended, but reinstated after the ANC intervened. He had ensured they exited as part of an anti-corruption plan, he told Daily Maverick. Failing management Johannesburg's audit outcome was unqualified with findings. (For context: the board of a private sector CEO of a company with a budget of R88-billion – Joburg's budget – would sack a CEO for this outcome.) The city lost R2.9-billion in water and R4.93 billion in electricity. Auditors ensured city finance officials reduced fruitless and wasteful expenditure to R1.48-million in 2023/24. Over the past three years, this figure stood at R354-million. The AG said the quality of its submitted statements was poor, but good on publication after remediation. The quality of its performance reports was poor. The overall status of its financial controls was poor. The BRT/Rea Vaya delays symbolise this failing management. The AG also found that 'The City of Johannesburg did not coordinate effectively with its entities. This was due to misalignment between the metro and its entities on expectations and plans, obligations, budgets and timelines for the successful delivery of key projects.' The DA has lodged a formal complaint with the Special Investigating Unit over the R1-billion in awards to companies that are linked to current and former councillors, said its head of caucus, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku. 'This shocking report paints a grim picture of a city where public money is seemingly treated as a personal piggy bank by those elected to serve it. At a time when Joburg's streets are crumbling, power outages are the norm and basic service delivery is in freefall, it is unacceptable that councillors may be benefiting from a broken procurement system.' Risk is that nothing will be done – Corruption Watch 'The worrying thing is that it is a sizeable amount – it may be six officials (or six awards to one official) or their relatives who cost Joburg residents just under R1-billion. 'The official response is quite disturbing. The biggest risk is that nothing will be done, and another big transport infrastructure is threatened. Metro governments are regressing in terms of their reports to the Auditor-General,' said Moepeng Talane of Corruption Watch, who assesses all AG reports for the organisation. 'It's worrying and urgently needs the intervention of the provincial governments,' she said. DM
IOL News
3 days ago
- IOL News
eThekwini City Manager under fire over R53 million payout due to service provider, call for suspension
eThekwini Municipality City manager Musa Mbhele has come under fire after the Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal by the City over a contractual dispute with a service provider. As a result, the City will have to pay the service provider R53 million. Image: Supplied / eThekwini Municipality eThekwini Municipality City Manager Musa Mbhele has come under fire with an opposition party calling for his suspension following a recent court order which requires the City to pay a service provider R53 million. The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini has demanded that Mbhele be placed on immediate suspension and referred to the Financial Misconduct Board. This demand comes in the wake of a Constitutional Court decision that dismissed the municipality's attempt to overturn a prior ruling, which held it liable for R30 million in damages. The damages stem from the municipality's 2013 decision to cancel contracts with Daily Double Trading 479CC. Courts previously ruled that the cancellation was unlawful, and the municipality's latest bid to appeal was dismissed this week by the Constitutional Court, which found it had no reasonable prospects of success. Lawyers for Daily Double Trading have given the City five days to pay or risk having their assets seized by the sherrif of the court to the value of the judgement. 'The DA believes that, as the head of the city's administration, Mbhele has a duty to safeguard public funds and not act recklessly when ratepayers' money is at stake. The party believes that his conduct in this matter warrants a formal investigation by the Financial Misconduct Board and that he should be suspended from his duties pending the outcome. He had every opportunity to comply with previous court orders related to this matter but refused to, thereby wasting public funds defending an indefensible position," said councillor Thabani Mthethwa in a statement. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Last week, in a statement, eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba said he fully respects the decision of the apex court. Once again, I accept the court's decision and await the finalisation of the quantum. I have already initiated a process to review how and why this happened, including the legal advice provided to the City. This will allow Council to determine what consequence action should be taken and how such monies can be recovered,' he added. He said where consequence management or recovery of state resources is recommended, such will be applied without fear or favour. 'This is an effective way of rooting out collusive corruption and other malfeasances.' THE MERCURY
The Citizen
7 days ago
- The Citizen
KZN premier meets Japanese ambassador to boost trade and investment ties
KZN premier meets Japanese ambassador to boost trade and investment ties KZN Premier Thami Ntuli on Wednesday held a cordial meet-and-greet engagement with the Japanese ambassador to South Africa, Shimizu Fumio, in Durban. This important diplomatic interaction sought to strengthen ties between KZN and Japan, exploring mutual areas of co-operation such as trade, investment, skills and infrastructure development, tourism, and technology transfer. ALSO READ: KZN municipalities lauded for clean audits Welcoming the ambassador, Ntuli emphasised KZN's openness to international partnerships that seek to promote economic growth, cultural exchange and innovation. He also highlighted the province's strategic advantages, including the Port of Durban, and opportunities in the agricultural and automotive sectors. Ambassador Fumio reaffirmed Japan's interest in supporting South Africa's developmental agenda at a provincial level, and noted KZN's potential as a destination for Japanese investment and collaboration. The meeting laid the foundation for further dialogue and concrete partnerships aimed at creating jobs, building capacity, and strengthening people-to-people ties between Japan and KZN. Don't have the ZO app? Download it to your Android or Apple device here: HAVE YOUR SAY Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. For news straight to your phone invite us: WhatsApp – 060 784 2695 Instagram – zululand_observer At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
