ETHEKWINI Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda recently delivered the State of the City Address (SOCA) where he outlined the Municipality’s financial position, progress on capital projects, as well as setting the agenda for the year ahead. 

He said the municipality 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 

The 8 000 families who were displaced by floods and moved to 120 mass care centres are now in safe family-friendly accommodation. Plans to build permanent houses for them are also advancing. The municipality is preparing 15 sites for this purpose. This will yield 3 500 sites. Building material to 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, rectification of pre and post 1994 houses (numbers), and the eradication of transit facilities. 

The municipality has completed 11 flood-related water projects in various areas. ”Together with Umgeni Water, we are finalising plans to upgrade the Southern Aqueduct which, when completed – will provide these areas with a reliable supply. 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 Umkhomazi Dam will resolve the deficit in available raw water to meet the full water demand for the entire municipal area. 

Mayor Kaunda said challenges of load shedding, theft, and vandalism of electricity infrastructure continues. He said over 100 power stations were severely affected by the floods however now all are in good working condition. The issue of cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure sets the municipality back with constant replacements and repairs to damaged power stations. 

Of the R1.5 billion flood relief grant, R1.2 billion has been allocated to repair roads, bridges, and storm water systems. In the past five years, the Municipality has upgraded 68km of roads from gravel to tar and rehabilitated 1 106km. 

Part of the interventions the municipality will implement to eradicate crime include: 

• Recruitment of 400 Metro Police officers annually
• Use of technology to fight crime using CCTV cameras in the CBD, rural areas, and townships
• Facial recognition cameras at entry points
• Body cameras for Metro Police Officers
• Training of specialised units in collaboration with SAPS
• Using drones to detect crime.