City Speaker Cllr Tobias Gumede was joined by the City Mayor Cllr Xolani Ngwezi on a community engagement at Dumisani Makhaye Village outside eMpangeni. Community members got to engage with the municipal leadership and got an opportunity to raise their views and  opinions about how the municipality is being run.

Mama Ntombi Thusi expressed how grateful they are about the positive change that they are seeing in the City, “We are now able to communicate directly with the Mayor and it is so good to see the Mayor and Speaker coming directly to our areas where we are staying to hear our challenges first hand,” said Thusi.

Meanwhile City Mayor Ngwezi said, “Some meetings are not for us to speak but listen to the complaints and views of our people and have the political will to resolve them. That is why we always want to be in touch with our communities so that they may directly engage with us, and for us to deliver according to their expectations and beyond,” said Ngwezi.

As part of the City of uMhlathuze understanding the people’s plight, especially during these economically challenging times, City Manager Nkosenye Zulu on behalf of the Mayor Xolani Ngwezi and City council, visited destitute residents of Dlangezwa and the surrounding areas to donate food parcels to about 50 needy families. The goodwill handover of food parcels worth R1500 took place at the Vulindlela community hall in Dlangezwa.

“We understand the plight of our people, especially the elderly and the children, as in some families, in some of your homes, you have not even one individual working and mostly you rely on grants, and that is the sad reality in our country, that is why we have come to give the little we can give for the betterment of you as our people,” said Zulu.

In dealing with the persisting water challenge in most wards under the City of uMhlathuze, the municipality has started with the process of replacing a 400m length of the 600mm water pipe. This will bring water relief to about 14 wards mainly at eSikhaleni cluster who have constantly been experiencing water cuts and shortage.

Esikhaleni Cluster is made up of the following WARDS and traditional authority, Ward 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17,18,19, 20, 21, 22, 30 and 34, Mkhwanazi Traditional Authority and Dube Traditional Authority.

Water Supply to these areas has been severely unstable since the beginning of April 2022 due to numerous power failures and continuous major burst pipes. This problem started in 2016 during the drought period, however it got worse after the floods. It is worth noting that the 450mm line does not pump sufficient volumes of water compared to the 600mm line, hence if there is a failure on the 600mm line, the reservoir levels drop drastically.

To recover the reservoir levels takes about three weeks. 80% and above is required to at least supply/cover 60% to 70% of eSikhaleni cluster population, hence if we are less that this level the high lying areas are affected and we mostly resort to water restrictions to increase the levels at Forest Reservoirs (20Ml x3).

Commenting on the current progress, City of uMhlathuze Mayor Xolani Ngwezi says this will bring some sense of relief to most affected residents, “The installation and replacement of this pipe is expected to take between a week and three weeks and after the completion our residents will get a huge water relief. This is while we are anticipating the completion of a 15 megalitre package plant in December, which will bring to end all water challenges in every ward of our City,” said Ngwezi.

In addition to this the municipality has added 20 water tankers to supply water temporarily to the locals and is in the process of building 17 boreholes in eSikhawini, Dlangezwa, Felixton and surrounding areas to mitigate in the current water supply challenge.