Date: 2025-06-04 09:52:51
Address By eThekwini Municipality Mayor, Cllr Cyril Xaba at The Post Budget Business Breakfast, 4 June 2025
• Programme Director: Ms Adele Seheri
• Amakhosi Asendlunkulu
• Deputy Mayor: Cllr Zandile Myeni
• Speaker of Council: Cllr Thabani Nyawose
• Whip of Council: Cllr Sinegugu Sishange
• Chairpersons of Committees
• EXCO Members
• City Manager: Mr Musa Mbhele
• Executive Directors
• Business Leadership
• Organised Labour Leadership
• Civil Society Organisations Leadership
• Members of the Media
• Distinguished Guests
• Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning,
On behalf of the leadership of the city, let me convey our sincere gratitude to all for availing yourselves to this post budget speech business breakfast to unpack the final budget for 2025/26 financial year.
You will recall that prior to the adoption of the budget, we embarked on intensive roadshows to solicit your inputs and we are pleased that most of the issues you raised with us were considered in the final budget.
Among the key issues you raised with us during the consultations include unaffordability of tariffs as they exceed inflation which negatively impacts the cost of doing business in the city. You also complained about the state of service delivery which is compounded by aging infrastructure. Throughout that process, we maintained that it was not just a box-ticking exercise, but a genuine effort to deliver a budget for all eThekwini residents.
Because we fully appreciate the challenges our people face as a result of the difficult economic climate, we were able to make changes to the final budget and reduced our tariffs as follows:
• Domestic water tariff was reduced from 15% to 13%,
• Water tariff for business was reduced from 16% to 14%. The reduction in water tariffs followed lengthy discussions between Umgeni-uThukela Water and the Minister of Water and Sanitation which resulted in the water utility reducing its tariffs from 13%-11%.
• We also effected a 2% reduction for sanitation tariffs
• The average property rates increase was reduced from 6.5% to 5.9%.
• The proposed refuse tariff increase for domestic households were reduced from 9.9% to 9% in line with the tariff increase for business.
• The proposed tariff increase for electricity of 12.72% remained unchanged as ESKOM cited increased generation and infrastructure maintenance costs
In addition to the reduction in the tariff increases, we increased the rebate on vacant land to 30% from 10%. Furthermore, where property previously categorized as agriculture as at 1 July 2025 is being developed, it will be re-categorized as Vacant Land and a rebate of 50% will be granted to the developer upon application and approval for a maximum period of 36 months as a once-off relief. This will be applicable to agricultural properties rezoned or subdivided from 1 July 2025 that do not qualify for any other rebate or incentive.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as a result of the tariffs adjustments, our annual budget was reduced from the proposed R71.3 billion to R70,9 billion which is made up of an operating budget of R63.6 billion and a capital budget of R7.3 billion.
We want to reiterate that the main focus of this budget is the replacement and rehabilitation of infrastructure to ensure efficient and effective service delivery. It also responds to the issue you raised of poor infrastructure as we have increased our capital budget to 10.3% (R7.3 billion), in line with the National Treasury norm to expand, replace and upgrade our infrastructure. A further 7% (R 4,3bn) of the operating budget has been allocated to repairs and maintenance of our assets.
Ladies and Gentlemen, whilst ongoing efforts are being made to maintain and renew our infrastructure, the implementation of the Trading Services Reform Programme will further improve service delivery with specific focus on water, sanitation, electricity, and waste management services.
We are pleased to report that we now have a water and sanitation turnaround strategy which has been adopted by the council and approved by the National Treasury. We have also met the deadlines for the submission of documents on institutional, governance and management capacity. Our business and investment plan as well as the governance roadmap have also been approved by National Treasury.
We are now working towards the adoption of eight minimum commitments to qualify for the first tranche of R365 million by September 2025 with a total of R2,5 billion over the MTREF. This funding will be utilized for the long-term sustainability of our trading services. The electricity unit is also undergoing the same process and it will be followed by the Cleansing and Solid Waste Unit.
The ultimate goal of these reforms is to have self-contained utilities that are able to render these basic services in the most effective and efficient manner.
With the water turnaround strategy, we want to enhance the financial sustainability of our water services through the following actions:
• Improving financial management by increasing the cash collection of the unit to 92%
• Reducing non-revenue water by 5% annually to reach the target of 25%.
• Replace all water meters that are older than 15 years. Our target is to replace 40 000 water meters annually. This will ensure that 98% of the bills we issue are based on actual meter readings rather than on monthly estimates.
• Responding to all burst pipes within 24 hours
• Increasing the unit’s internal capacity by insourcing ward-based plumbers and yellow plant
• Proactive leak detection by deploying technology on our infrastructure.
• Ringfence water and sanitation business unit and ensuring a single point of accountability for all support functions such as human resources, fleet, finance, supply chain management and information technology.
• Root out fraud and corruption within the unit as well as address all Auditor-General’s findings
• Increasing asset maintenance budget to 8%
• Improve the efficiency of our call centre and automate it with the latest technology
We are confident that through this strategy we will be able to improve the efficiency of our water and sanitation business so that it can cope with the ever-growing service delivery demands that are placed on the city.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TOURISM AND JOB CREATION
Ladies and gentlemen, with this budget, we will implement bold initiatives to ensure that eThekwini remains the premier destination of choice for tourism and investment. In the next financial year, we will allocate R600 million to key economic nodes for catalytic projects. This investment will unlock R217 billon projects in the city that will result in the creation of 300 000 jobs.
These catalytic projects are also instrumental in enhancing the tourism experience of our visitors. For instance, the opening of the Oceans Umhlanga and the Westown Square has redefined retail, dining and entertainment experience in the city, further positioning Durban as a premier tourism hub.
We also have exciting plans for the beach front as we have already confirmed a R2 billion investment by Southern Sun and other investors that will redevelop the Children Amusement Centre, the Joe Cools Property and the Durban Fun World.
INNER-CITY REGENERATION
Ladies and gentlemen, we are accelerating efforts to make Durban an investment-friendly city. As the leadership, we have acknowledged that a great deal must be done to revive the city centre, hence we are currently implementing the inner-city regeneration programme.
Through this bold initiative, we want to improve public safety, address the challenge of homelessness – eradicating bad buildings, upgrading public realms, patching potholes, and ensuring that streetlights are on.
Since law enforcement is the key component of this programme, we have increased the number of Metro police personnel and deployed technology to enforce bylaws. To safeguard and grow the informal trade business, we are clamping down on illegal informal trade and enforcing building by laws to ensure that no illegal activities are taking place in the inner-city.
To attract more investment in the city centre, the City Manager and his team have packaged over R150 billion of investment projects in the inner-city, covering the Marina and Point Waterfront precincts. We have also secured R100 million from national government following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between eThekwini Municipality and Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to eradicate bad buildings. Feasibility studies are also underway to implement multi-modal public transport system within the inner-city.
All these initiatives indicate that the city is on an upward development trajectory. We are acutely aware that to achieve our vision of making eThekwini the Africa’s most caring and liveable city, a collective effort is required from all stakeholders. Therefore, we call upon you as our social partners to work with us to achieve this noble goal.
I thank you.
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