DISGRUNTLED ratepayers’ associations under the umbrella of the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM) have given eThekwini Municipality an ultimatum of 14 days to respond to their demands.

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This emerged at a protest held at Curries Fountain on March 1 where scores of residents from across eThekwini gathered to express their anger over what they called lack of service delivery.

Chairperson of the Bluff Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA), Norman Gilbert, said the municipality is wasting millions on unnecessary expenditure.

“Some of us have worse problems than others and as the community we need to go to the people who are suffering and work for them.

“This city blows its budgets for 12 months in the first five months of the year. They have spent the money, but cannot show you where or how it was used. When you ask about a water leak that has not been repaired for four to five weeks, it’s because they cannot pay the contractor to do the work. They only use their internal plumbers – but the problem is that they have only 100 plumbers. We are living in a city with over 7000 water leaks. Then how do you get the work done? These are the problems that we are dealing with. Where is the supply chain management in all of this? They should be overseeing how the municipality is using the money,” said Gilbert.

Various associations representing different areas including Isipingo, Merebank, Wentworth, Verulam, Chatsworth, Sydenham, New Germany, and Westville participated in the march.

He said the BRRA proudly stood in solidarity with the greater Durban community at the protest.

“For far too long, residents have suffered through intermittent or no water supply, and it’s time to say ‘enough is enough’. The event aimed to send a clear message to the municipality: We will no longer tolerate empty promises and ineffective strategies that have only led to further deterioration of the situation.

“Furthermore, the protest highlighted the alarming issue of the city’s water surcharge, which is collected specifically for the repair and restoration of water infrastructure. Shockingly, the city has not accounted for the amount collected or provided details on which projects it has been allocated to,” said Gilbert.

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He said the lack of transparency and accountability raises serious concerns about the municipality’s fiduciary responsibility, particularly in light of the estimated R1.5 billion lost annually to fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Ratepayers handed over a memorandum with their demands to the representative of eThekwini Municipality, chairperson of the Governance and Human Capital Committee, Nkosenhle Madlala.

The chairperson of the ERPM, Asad Gaffar, addressed the residents and urged them to soldier on and hold the municipality accountable for its failure in servicing the people.

The residents demand the municipality address these pressing issues:

1. Redress of historical imbalances and equitable access to water
2. That the municipality addresses the failing infrastructure in a comprehensive and transparent manner.
3. The municipality must recognise and address the injustice of residents paying for water they don’t receive, due to recurring extended outages and pressure regulation practices in the system
4. The prioritisation for the provision of piped water to all communities, including informal settlements.
5. Enhanced reservoir security and monitoring
6. Transparent disclosure of the infrastructure surcharge: We demand that the municipality provides a reconciled breakdown of the Infrastructure Surcharge collected from ratepayers.
7. We demand that the water and sanitation budget is:

•  Ringfenced to ensure that DWS functions are optimised and supported.
• Balanced responsibly to ensure adequate funding for maintenance, upgrades, and new infrastructure
• Subject to ratepayer oversight on projects, spending, and tenders to ensure transparency and accountability
• That the municipality installs meters in all consuming areas, including indigent communities, to measure water consumption accurately. This will enable:

• Accurate budgeting for revenue and non-revenue water
• Equitable distribution of water
• Identification of leaks and inefficiencies
• Fair billing practices

The ratepayers’ association vowed to take further actions, including mass withholding of ratepayers’ payments to the municipality should it fail to comply with the 14-day deadline.

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