A week after the leadership of eThekwini Municipality committed to ongoing payments due to unpaid contractors, with some invoices as old as five months, it emerged in yesterday’s (May 7) media briefing that the City’s message was “not accurate”.

The briefing, convened by the Waste Water Task Team, unpacked their frustrations regarding unpaid invoices dating as far back as November 2025. Another thorn in their side was the newly introduced digital invoicing system, which the City has defended.

During the City briefing last week, the City’s chief financial officer, Dr Sandile Mnguni, said, “Payments are ongoing; since the beginning of April, over 6000 invoices, amounting to approximately R800m, have already been paid.

The frustrated contractors, mostly small businesses, shared the pain of non-payments resulting in repossession of their vehicles and properties, and unpaid salaries, school fees, as well as escalating debts to loan sharks.

“The City is not telling the truth. As SMMs, we are facing huge challenges because we are not paid,” said task team member Nozipho Mteshane.
Outright, the contractors called for a cessation of the digital invoicing system, which they described as “untested and delaying”. “The city was too quick to implement the system, posing challenges. The city staff is not well trained, and, most importantly, the system is not user-friendly for suppliers. It is flawed. We suggest that the system is scrapped. We are not against innovation and migration to the latest technology, but the system was supposed to be either used in parallel to the manual method, or be slowly introduced.”

Also read: City commits to payment of contractors amid vandalism

The suppliers included units from Pure Water, Sanitation, Roads, and Stormwater.
“We are the service providers contracted by the City to ensure faster and smoother service delivery to communities. We do not condone reported vandalism of the infrastructure; however, hunger can drive people to act in an unbecoming manner,” said sanitation contractor, Lwazi Mdladla.

The NAFCOC business chamber called for the eThekwini Municipality to do justice regarding pending payments, and go back to the drawing board regarding the digitised invoicing system. It pleaded with the leadership to take small businesses seriously, and help alleviate unemployment challenges.

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