High expectations and an acute awareness of the onus of local government to provide service delivery, has put the new Council, in power since August 3, 2016, under severe scrutiny.
So said Endumeni Mayor, Richard Mbatha, at last week’s Breakfast Budget Session in the Moth Hall which started an hour and a half late after the advertised time of 10am.
When the Mayor arrived, it was said he had not been feeling too well. However, once he got to the podium, he was his customary articulate self and even surprised the professional radio presenters from Gagasi FM, hired by the municipality to tell ‘the good story of Endumeni’.

He again highlighted the high theft of electricity which is currently running at around R1,5-million a month.

“People put leaders in power and we must make sure that those leaders are trustworthy. We must all take responsibility to make things better especially for the poor people and we must get out of the habit of leaving this responsibility to the select few,” Mayor Mbatha told the crowd in the Moth Hall which comprised mainly of ward committee members and a handful of business people.
“We have declared war on poverty. We are transparent. We want to ask the people of Endumeni to come forward and ask us what is it we must do for them.” He again highlighted the high theft of electricity which is currently running at around R1,5-million a month. The Council has spent R2,5-million on hiring a meter-auditing company to check all meters for tampering.

Councillors Carlese, Bedassi and Mayor Mbatha.

Capital projects
The Mayor commented that the capital budget for 2017/18 stands at R126-million while the operating budget is around R310-million. He was adamant that all capital projects would be completed within 12 months which sparked much applause. Projects include the new pack-house for storing vegetables for the Tandy Street garden project, better roads – including upgrading the Argyle/Browning Street route that has been destroyed by trucks, a new media centre in Sithembile and the servicing of the new sites laid out in Craigieburn. The Council hopes to raise over R8-million in revenue from the sale of around 25 sites. The Mayor said revenue from the sale of these sites would be ‘ring-fenced’ for other infrastructure service delivery projects.
Plan for ‘gays, prostitutes and lesbians’
There was a ripple of controversy when the Mayor said ‘Endumeni Municipality is the only Council to come up with an action plan for gays, prostitutes and lesbians’. Some thought the comment was ‘homophobic’ but according to the municipality it is action plan to ‘assist’. It is not clear, yet, what the plan entails. The programme also included a motivational talk by Nomthandazo Cebekhulu who said, as a young person she wanted to motivate leaders to do things differently to achieve more.