Deputy Public Protector Malunga urges Ethekwini municipality to prioritise needs of Kennedy road residents
Sunday, 17 April 2016
Ethekwini municipality's massive R41billion budget to be released on Monday
18 April 21016, would mean nothing to an ordinary resident of Kennedy Road
informal settlement if it does not address their massive service delivery
challenges, Deputy Public Protector Adv. Kevin Malunga said on Friday.
The Deputy Public Protector implored the municipality to prioritise
the basic needs of the thousands residents of the informal settlement
to improve their quality of life.
Speaking during an inspection in loco at the settlement, Adv. Malunga
said Kennedy road was a ticking time bomb that could explode in the
municipality's face if it was not taken care of urgently.
Flanked by municipality officials and community representatives, who
had sought intervention from his office and officials from the
municipality, Adv. Malunga and his team negotiated their way
around a filthy and litter-infested informal settlement speaking
to the locals about their challenges.
The locals did not hold back their apparent frustration about
lack of services in their area telling the Deputy Public Protector
how difficult it was to live in the area. "It is tough to live
here, we have nothing and no one cares about us," one of the residents
said, speaking from a one roomed cardboard house, which they alleged
cost the municipality R35 000 a unit.
A distraught young mother described how her son was electrocuted
and died after he touched an exposed electrical wire. She pleaded
with the municipality to save other children from the same fate.
The Deputy Public Protector Adv. Malunga and his team could not
believe what they saw after being invited into one of the temporary
structures. The cardboard house was riddled with cracks both inside
and outside and its structural integrity was poor.
"There is no way this could be worth that much (i.e.R35 000). There
is no structural integrity and this could collapse any time," Adv. Malunga said.
A couple of metres away, a number of contractors from the
municipality, dressed in blue overalls were hard at work erecting
one of the supporting structures that hold the ground on which the
shacks are erected.
"They knew you were coming, that's why they are here, they
only came today" shouted one of the residents. He said the
issues of housing, electricity, roads and high level of youth
unemployment needed urgent attention.
Adv. Malunga drew examples from his experience to warn the municipality
that community needed to be listened to and their needs be urgently
attended to especially when they are still willing to talk to the
officials.
The experience nationally is that service delivery protests and
destruction of property were the next step. Deputy Public Protector
said the answer his office often got whenever they asked rioting community
members why they were burning things, the answer they got too often was
that, burning the much needed infrastructure was the only way to get the
officials to listen.
He said the municipality should guard against not attending the informal
settlement issues as it was clear not much had been done since their visit
with Public Protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela in December 2015.
Adv. Malunga highlighted the lack of progress to the municipality and a
deadline of 5 May 2016 was agreed upon, where the municipality will
account to the office on the progress made regarding water and
sanitation, electricity among others.
He however commended the fact that Durban Solid Waste is now
collecting refuse but said more could be done as the settlement was
still filthy. Adv. Malunga said the meeting had also resolved to rope
in the provincial and national departments of Human Settlements as
some of the interventions fell within their competence.
The Deputy Public Protector condemned the expenditure spent by the
city on what he described as wasteful and unproductive projects such
as the alleged R1.7m expenditure on artist Nicki Minaj when people
are living in such squalor.
He asked the municipality that as their budget is finalised, improving
the lives of the poor should take centre stage.
�These poor people don�t benefit from Nicki Minaj no matter how the
city may try to spin this,� the Deputy Public Protector said. �It is
indefensible. How many local artists can that money sustain? They
must avoid such perceived waste in future.
He said his office had been asked to probe the expenditure on the US artist.
Adv. Malunga�s visit was part of the office's intervention on security
and service delivery issues at Glebelands and Kennedy Road.
For more information contact:
Ms Kgalalelo Masibi
Spokesperson: Public Protector South Africa
Public Protector South Africa
012 366 7066
079 507 0399
Email: [email protected]
www.publicprotector.org
@PublicProtector
Public Protector South Africa
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