R10bn allocated to rebuild municipal infrastructure
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Date: 2025-03-17 13:11:49

R10bn allocated to rebuild municipal infrastructure

ETHEKWINI NEWSFLASH
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
17 MARCH 2025
 
R10BN ALLOCATED TO REBUILD MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE
 
EThekwini Municipality has allocated approximately R10 billion to rebuild water, electricity, and solid waste management infrastructure.
 
This comes as Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana announced a R3.33 billion grant allocation to eThekwini for trading services reforms over the next three years. 
 
This is a performance grant to be used to upgrade water and sanitation, electricity and solid waste management to ensure that trading services are self-sufficient.
 
The reforms for trading services will initially affect water and electricity for the first year starting in the 2025/26 financial year. 
 
With respect to EThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS) Unit, the City has adopted a Water and Sanitation Turnaround Strategy (TAS) and further developed the Business and Investment plan and an Institutional and Governance Reform Road map.
 
The latter has the six strategic pillars that underpin the reform of EWS into a ring-fenced commercial business unit as echoed by Minister Godongwana in the recent budget speech.
 
The strategic pillars are as follows:
 
1. Institutionalisation of single point of accountability
2. Acquisition of management, technical and change leadership capabilities
3. Improvement of governance model
4. Financial ring-fencing of Water and Sanitation Business Unit
5. Improving budget execution rate and catalyse the flow of private and international long-term financing for water and sanitation
6. Augmentation of management capacity through a performance-based management contract.
 
Pursuant to the implementation of this strategy, the City intends to increase investment into priority capital and operational programmes that will help realise the envisaged financial turnaround as well as stabilise the water and sanitation services to meet customer needs.
 
The turnaround strategy, as adopted by Council, is in progress with 22 percent of the goals achieved to date.
 
As the City aligns its budget priorities, the additional funds will be directed to the EWS TAS programmes that seek to reduce water losses, improve customer call centre systems, water metering as well as intermittent water supply while reducing inefficiencies in all operations. 
 
The City through the Mayor’s Office will continue to engage all stakeholders on the EWS TAS to ensure the performance and outcome required are achieved.
 
The R3.33bn incentive grant will therefore help the City gear up its existing resources to accelerate the reforms required and reposition the trading services to attract the required investments to improve the business as per the business and investment plans that have been developed for the next five years.
 
EThekwini Municipality welcomes the indicative allocations as provided in the budget and shall align these to the City’s budget for approval in May 2025.
 
ENDS
 
Issued by eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Unit.