Date: 2025-03-24 15:55:38
Media statement by eThekwini Municipality Mayor, Cllr Cyril Xaba, 23 March 2025
MEDIA STATEMENT BY ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY MAYOR, CLLR CYRIL XABA, 23 MARCH 2025
• Head of Communications: Mr Mandla Nsele
• Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media
Good day,
Let me convey my gratitude to all of you for attending this media briefing to update the public on key service delivery issues.
FLOOD DISASTERS
We are meeting at a time when the City has just emerged from a series of catastrophic weather events which have claimed lives and destroyed infrastructure. From 19 February up to 15 March, the City experienced heavy rainfalls in areas such as Lamontville, KwaMakhutha, Adams Mission, Isiphingo, Pinetown and Inanda which claimed 16 lives.
As the leadership of the City, we would like to convey our condolences to the families of the deceased. We have been working closely with the bereaved families to ensure that their loved ones receive a dignified burial.
The inclement weather also caused extensive damage to private properties as 1 452 houses and close to 6 000 people were affected. Working with provincial and national government, we have been able to relocate some of the flood victims to family-friendly accommodation in the City. Others have moved in with their relatives, and we want to thank them for this act of kindness.
As you know, each time these flood disasters occur, they destroy our critical infrastructure which results in the interruption of the provision of basic services. The total cost for infrastructure damages arising from the floods from 19 February to 2 March are estimated at R 1.5 billion which can be summarised as follows:
• Roads and storm water: R35.6 million
• Roads provision: R281.7 million
• Coastal and storm water catchment: R307.7 million
• Sanitation: R330 million
• Human Settlements: R354 million
• Water operations: R6 million
• Electricity: R5.5 million
• Cleansing and Solid Waste: R10.2 million
• Parks and Recreation: R36 million for libraries, community halls and cemeteries.
The damages caused by the 15 March floods are still being quantified and we will be able to share them with the public as soon as they become available.
We welcome the declaration of the state of disaster in the province by national government. We are hopeful that a substantial amount of the disaster grant funding will be allocated to eThekwini considering the extensive losses we have suffered.
WATER TURNAROUND STRATEGY BUSINESS PLAN
Ladies and Gentlemen, the provision of uninterrupted water supply in the City remains our top priority and we have acknowledged that there is a challenge in the management and delivery this critical service.
For this reason, we have developed the Water Turnaround Strategy which has been adopted by Council and approved by National Treasury as part of the trading services reforms introduced to Metros in the country.
You will agree with me that a few years ago, eThekwini water and sanitation was number one in the country. With this strategy, we want to restore the water business so that it becomes the utility of the future – consistent with the growth and new demands that are placed on the City. Our strategy has 13 objectives that we want to achieve.
Key among them include sound financial management. Currently, our water and sanitation business is struggling financially. Our operating cost coverage ratio is sitting at 0.85 and our intention is to reach 1.2 to 1.5 over a period of five years, we want to see ourselves sitting at 1, which will indicate that at least we are breaking even.
The profit margin of the business is also very low as we are sitting with an overdraft of R18 billion for water and R6 billion for sanitation and it will take us about three years to start to generate a surplus that we can plough back into the business, particularly for infrastructure. We also want water and sanitation to have cash that can cover us for 90 days. Currently the cash collection is 67% and we want to increase our collection to 92% next year.
Secondly, with this strategy we want to address non-revenue water (NRW). Currently, our NRW is sitting at 58%. With the strategy, that we intend driving aggressively, we must reduce NRW by 5% annually.
In five years’ time, we want to reduce NRW by 25%. As a City, we would like to reduce this number further, but the return on investment will be very low if we want to go below 25% as it will require substantial investment on infrastructure.
To achieve the target of 5% reduction in NRW annually, we are going to embark on a wide-range of initiatives. These include measuring the water we are getting from Umngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) at the custody transfer point (the point at which the City receives water from UUW).
Currently, we do have manual meters to verify the amount of water we are receiving from the water utility, but our goal is to automate this function so that our officials can read these meters remotely. We are also investing in the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA) to monitor our reservoirs and transmit the data collected remotely the telemetry system.
Furthermore, we will replace all water meters that are older than 15 years in the City. The life span of a water meter is 15 years and if you run it beyond this point, the accuracy of water volumes measured drops. Coupled with this, we will ensure that we have enough stock of meter at our stores. Our target is to replace 40 000 water meters annually.
We will start this programme with customers that are consuming more water like industries. This will enable us to effectively implement our credit control policies. We have made it clear as the leadership that at least 98% of the bills we issue must be based on actual meter readings rather than on monthly estimates. Currently, about 25% of our bills are estimated.
Ladies and Gentlemen, illegal connections are also contributing significantly to water losses. Therefore, going forward, we are declaring zero tolerance on illegal connections. We have established technical teams and provided them with necessary tools of trade to clamp down on water theft. This drive will focus both on residential and business customers.
Furthermore, to curb water losses, we have set a standard that all bursts pipes must be responded to and repaired within 24 hours. Again, this will require us to increase our internal capacity including insourcing ward-based plumbers.
Proactive leak detection in curbing water losses is also being prioritised and we can only achieve this if we deploy technology on our infrastructure. We are also putting more emphasis on quality assurance on the work being done by our plumbers.
From now on, when we send plumbers to do repair work, they must tell us what they have found by sending pre and post work pictures. Through our call centre and other mediums of communication, we will also provide feedback to our customers and check if the work has been done to their satisfaction.
Again, to save water, we are going to implement a forced repairs programme. This will entail getting inside people’s properties to fix water leaks. We will also create the NRW nerve centre within the EThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit which will be central in coordinating work across various streams in the NRW.
Most importantly, we need to reduce the amount of water we are consuming as individual. Currently, our consumption is at 266 litres per person per day. We need to reduce this to at least 218 litres per person per day. Furthermore, we must reduce the volumes of water we are buying from UUW by 8.3%. This is critical considering the curtailments that have been imposed on UUW by the Department of Water and Sanitation.
On the Ingonyama Trust Land, we will create addresses for properties in rural areas, install water meters so that we can start collecting revenue in these areas and improve service delivery. This will also assist us to identify people who are indigent and qualifying for free basic services. Before we implement this programme, there will be a thorough consultation process with Amakhosi and all relevant stakeholders.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the strategy also proposes far-reaching institutional reforms. I am sure you are all aware that currently Water and Sanitation exists as a Municipal unit under trading services. Our intention is to make Water and Sanitation a fully-fledged business unit with all support functions such as human resources, fleet, finance, supply chain management and information technology.
This will enable the unit to function effectively and assist the person in charge of the service to be in full control of the operations. This means that we are going to ring-fence all water-related activities under this fully-fledged unit. The organisational structure for this business unit will be finalised by May and coming into operation in July this year.
Furthermore, we want to ensure that the Water and Sanitation Unit fills all funded posts and reduces reliance on external contractors including plumbers. The number of engineers in this unit must also be consistent with the population of the City.
In line with our vision of building an entity of the future, we will ensure that young people are attracted to work in the water and sanitation environment by offering them bursaries.
Ladies and Gentlemen, to ensure that the Water Turnaround Strategy is successfully implemented, we have developed a business and investment plan that has been approved by National Treasury. The plan clearly outlines how much will be required in the next 10 years for the implementation of the strategy. So far, an amount of R3.333 billion has been tentatively allocated for the trading services, added to it is the R6.6 billion for water and sanitation, tolling a whopping R 9.933 over the next three years.
I am pleased to report that we have already started to consult with all relevant stakeholders to make input on the plan and to urge them to save water and curb the vandalism of infrastructure. Two weeks ago, we met with staff that is responsible for operations from the Water and Sanitation Unit. The purpose of the meeting was to present this plan. We have also presented the plan to the ratepayers’ associations who welcomed it and also committed to work with us to monitor its full implementation.
As the leadership of the City, we want to assure you that we are committed to running a clean, transparent and efficient water service in the City. Therefore, if our officials are dragging their feet and refusing to work, we will not hesitate to discipline them.
Those who are involved in fraud and corruption, will be rooted out from the system as we implement consequence management. We are also committing to address all the findings by the Auditor-General through a tangible audit action plan that will be monitored by the Executive Committee and Chairpersons of Portfolio Committees.
As a coastal city, we are faced with recurring floods and as part of the strategy we have developed a resilient plan that will assist us to mitigate and adapt to these catastrophic weather events. Our message as the leadership is clear; the City must not be reactive to disasters. And for this reason, we are going to invest more resources in the unit that will assist us to be proactive in dealing with flood disasters.
On water security, we are currently building the Upper and Lower Umkhomazi Dams which will be gamechangers in ensuring water supply in the City. We are also exploring public-private partnerships for water recycling and reuse, particularly for industries.
Regarding asset maintenance, as the City, we are currently spending 0.5% on the replacement of our water and sanitation assets. Our ultimate goal is to move towards 1.10%. So, when we budget, we will now consider how much we are allocating for the replacement of our assets. We also want to increase the budget for maintenance.
Currently our replacement value of asset is about R140 billion, but we are spending 4% of our annual budget for maintenance. The norm is that we should be spending 8%, based on the current replacement value of assets. Our intention is to move to 7% in the next few years and increase it progressively over time.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the security of our employees is also critical in the implementation of this strategy. Over the years, we have lost several employees while on duty. Therefore, we will tighten our securing measures to ensure our assets including workers are safe.
As a City, we also want to improve the efficiency of our call centre and automate it with the latest technology. The call centre must complete the cycle by giving feedback to customers who have logged service delivery issues.
To achieve these goals, a culture change must take place within the organisation so that indolence by some of our staff is addressed. People must know that they are in the Municipality to serve, satisfy our customers and restore confidence.
REVENUE ENHANCEMENT
Ladies and Gentlemen, increasing revenue collection is critical in improving service delivery in the City. We are agile to the fact that if our customers are not satisfied with our service, we will not be able to generate revenue for the City. During my engagements with various stakeholders, including ratepayers, customers often complain about our bills not being user-friendly.
We are pleased to report that we have made some changes to the face of the standard Municipal bill to ensure that the document is more simplified. These changes were necessary because we want customers to understand what they are paying for.
We have also embarked on a programme to digitise revenue management services through the introduction of the e-Services platform. Through this programme, we want to migrate the services of sending customer bills from manual postage to electronic method.
Therefore, we want to encourage our customers to register on the e-Services portal so that they can access our services without travelling to Municipal offices.
Through this portal, the City will have updated customer information and be able to send bills electronically to ensure timeous delivery. This will in-turn allow customers to view and pay their bills on time. The platform also allows customers to make payments online as we have integrated a digital payment option.
DECEASED ESTATE DEBT WRITE-OFF
Ladies and Gentlemen, you will recall that in August last year, the Municipality introduced the deceased estate debt write-off programme.
Since this programme begun, 8 163 applications have been received which amount to R944 million. I am happy to report that, so far, we have been able to write off the debt for 6 506 people, amounting to R526 million which is 56% of the applications received however there are those who didn’t meet the criteria and therefore were rejected. Our revenue section is currently processing 741 applications.
The qualifying criteria for the programme are that the property must be up to the value of R1 million and it must be solely owned by the deceased. Most important, the deceased estate must be over 24 months. The programme is still open, and we encourage people who want to apply to visit our Sizakala Customer Care Centres.
EASTER HOLIDAY SEASON
Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are approaching the Easter Holidays, we want to assure our visitors both locally and internationally that we are ready to deliver safe and memorable Easter Holidays. Next week, we will be launching the Easter campaign, inviting visitors to experience the City’s perfect blend of adventure and relaxation.
This campaign will showcase Durban’s diverse attractions, from world-class shopping malls and vibrant market scenes to breath-taking waterfalls and cultural safaris.
Themed "Endless Fun Season," the campaign highlights Durban’s rich tourism offerings, ensuring visitors can explore more adventure, cuisine, attractions, and experiences.
Adding more flavour to our campaign this year, is the opening of the Westown Square, a multi-billion-rand catalytic development in Shongweni, west of Durban.
This landmark destination, which will be open to the public on 27 March, is set to redefine retail, dining, and entertainment experiences in the region, further positioning Durban as a premier tourism hub. This project will catalyse development along the N3 from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. It is our Midrand equivalent.
We anticipate an increase in the number of visitors and a hotel occupancy rate of 63%, with a direct impact of R2.4 billion to the City’s economy. Our hotel occupancy rate this time last year was 50%.
Some of the signature events visitors can look forward to, include the following:
• Joyous Celebration Easter Weekend on 19 April
• One-Man Show Concert- Pianocast: 19 April
• EThekwini Surf Pro and
• The Durban International Marathon.
There will be precinct activations in all regions in areas such as Amanzimtoti, Shongweni, uMhlanga, Inanda and the Beachfront.
In the month of April, we will also host the G20 Disaster Risk Reduction Ministerial Session which forms part of the broader G20 summit which will take place in November.
The G20 Disaster Risk Reduction Ministerial Session will take place on 10 and 11 April at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre. It will bring together ministers responsible for emergency and disaster-related portfolios in the G20 member states.
From 8 to 11 April, the City will host the Second Meeting of the G20 Employment Working Group at the Arch Convention Centre in uMhlanga.
We invite all our visitors to join the excitement, explore Durban’s endless adventures, and celebrate the Easter season in Africa’s ultimate playground.
I thank you.
Disability Right Awareness Month
