An artist impression of one of the upgrades planned for the iconic Moses Mabhida Stadium. This comes as Council approved R236 million to rehabilitate the stadium. The upgrades were announced by eThekwini Mayor Councillor Cyril Xaba during his 100 days in office report.

ETHEKWINI Mayor Councillor Cyril Xaba reported on the tangible difference made in the City during his first 100 days in office. He was speaking at a media briefing at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on 24 October. During the briefing, he higlighted planned upgrades to the Moses Mabhida Stadium. He said Council recently approved R236 million to rehabilitate the stadium which has been in existence for 15 years. “We want to assure all our stakeholders that the venue is structurally sound, and it will continue to host major events while the repairs are ongoing. This has been approved and certified by engineers.”

The upgrades include:

Mayor Xaba said upgrades will not only guarantee commercial viability of the stadium but will also improve safety of residents and visitors. Regarding his tenure in office, Mayor Xaba said his focus has been to accelerate service delivery and to build inclusive economic growth. Mayor Xaba said the overall financial situation of the Municipality remains sound and healthy as they focus on strengthening governance and implementing consequence management. This has been demonstrated by the reduction of the backlog of disciplinary cases from 334 to four. “The City recently blacklisted eight companies, which brings to 32 the total number of blacklisted entities. This decision disqualifies them from participating in the procurement system of the Municipality,” he added. Mayor Xaba said their efforts to stabilise the City, accelerate service delivery, and fight fraud and corruption are beginning to show positive results. 

He said tackling water challenges remains a key priority and the City has implemented a weekly meeting on Fridays to discuss water and sanitation issues only. “We have also started to conduct site visits to water and sanitation infrastructure in areas where people are experiencing intermittent water supply or lack thereof.

Through this intervention, we are seeing improvement in water supply in the northern areas after replacing all water valves in the Northern Aqueduct Pipeline as it was not performing optimally. In the next few weeks, we will be commissioning the second Northern Aqueduct after completing the tie-in along the Duffs Road area,” he said. “We are also making progress in improving water supply in the southern areas following the appointment of a contractor to commence with repairs and upgrades of the Southern Aqueduct. We are happy to report that water supply is gradually improving after repairing faulty valves on the existing pipeline. The laying of the new pipeline is well on track for this two-year project with a value of R1.2 billion,” Mayor Xaba added. He said another area of focus was growing the economy and creating jobs. He said they have embarked on extensive engagements with the business sector through the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the KZN Growth Coalition. As part of the proactive land release strategy, the City has released 34 properties for leasing.
This is the highest ever single land release in the history of the Municipality.