We have delivered – says District Mayor
Cllr Thembeka Mchunu said she was proud of the things they have achieved, under trying circumstances.
DESPITE challenges, the leadership of uThungulu District Municipality has fulfilled its promise to deliver basic services to the people.
This was the message from the Mayor of uThungulu District Municipaly, Cllr Thembeka Mchunu.
Presenting her fourth inaugural State of the District Address, held at Ntingwe Sportsfield, in Nkandla, Mchunu said she was proud of the things they have achieved, under trying circumstances.
‘We are proud to say we have done what we set out to do. We can now plot the next five years in terms of service delivery by looking at our Integrated Development Plan. In the past five years we have laid pipelines and installed infrastructure for bulk services.
‘At Mthonjaneni and Ntambanana we have 100% completed all planned sanitation projects. We are indeed advancing people’s power in every community through the delivery of services.’
The Mayor said they have adopted a budget for the financial year 2016/2017 to the tune of R1.136-billion.
‘In doing so we are ensuring that more and more rural communities are benefiting from investments in basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and roads. We are also empowering our communities to end hunger by productively using the available or redistributed land.’
She said they have connected 72 524 households with sanitation facilities from 2001-2015, and that the water backlogs have decreased from 81% to 39% between 2001 and 2016.
Drought
She warned however that the water situation was dire, as major water resources, including the Phobane Dam (Goedertrouw) dropped to below 20% in the past few months.
‘As a district we have been forced to take drastic steps to ensure water was available throughout the dry winter months.
‘As part of poverty alleviation we have revitilised agriculture and agro-processing value chain. We established the District Fresh Produce Market and gave it wings. A matter of pride to me was when we introduced District Biogas Renewable Energy project, in trying to deal with the energy challenge. We launched communal digesters at Judea and Thatha Falaza this year. We also identified Edakeni, a poverty-stricken area in uMlalazi Municipality, where we constructed 70 Biogas digesters.’
The Mayor also confirmed that Ntambanana Municipality will be disestablished and part of it will be incorporated into uMhlathuze (Wards 5,7 and 8), uMfolozi (Ward 6) and Mthonjaneni (Wards 1,2,3 and 4).
This she said, was in line with the redetermination of municipal boundaries.
‘Having said that we will continue putting people first by constantly listening and communicating with them. We will provide adequate community orientated services and to ensure we provide clean governance and transparent administration.’
The Mayor also reiterated the renaming of the District to King Cetshwayo District Municipality, saying the renaming was motivated by the desire to honour King Cetshwayo for the role he played in protecting the rights of his people.
‘As we end off another successful year, 2015/2016, we also have much to celebrate, having achieved our third consecutive clean financial audit for 2014/2015.
‘I wish to thank the wonderful people of this district for supporting us in our quest to take the district forward. I also wish to thank my staff, my family, especially my husband Senzo for the support and being a pillar of strength. Finally I wish to thank the ANC for trusting me to lead this district from 2011 until now.’
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