eThekwini mayor urges community to safeguard water infrastructure amid outages

Ethekwini mayor Cyril Xaba called on all residents to protect our water infrastructure and report any acts of vandalism or suspicious activity to the relevant authorities. EThekwini mayor Cyril Xabahas called on the community to protect water infrastructure amidsuspected vandalism causing water outages. Briefing the media yesterday, the mayor stated that the City continues to work around the clock to address water supply interruptions affecting various communities.

“I appeal to members of the public to refrain from interfering with critical water infrastructure. The City recently responded to an incident involving interference with infrastructure in Westville, and we remain concerned about ongoing vandalism affecting infrastructure in Ntuzuma and KwaMashu,” he said. The mayor said these criminal acts are causing prolonged water outages, disrupting essential services, and costing the City significant resources that could otherwise be invested in improving service delivery.

“We call on all residents to protect our water infrastructure and report any acts of vandalism or suspicious activity to the relevant authorities. Safeguarding these vital assets is a shared responsibility,” Xaba added. Ratepayer groups said the issue of water outages and leaks is a serious problem.

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Asad Gaffar, the chairperson of the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM), stated, “My area has experienced water outages. If the municipality can prove vandalism, then they are obligated to act on it. At the same time, they cannot just disregard the team of plumbers who have not been paid since November last year.” Ish Pradlah, of the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association, said certain parts of Ward 23 had been affected by leaks and outages.

“The leaks throughout the area are concerning due to issues with the contractor. Water leaks have trebled, and I think that the loss of water is going to be much higher compared to earlier figures of 56%. Other areas of eThekwini are also experiencing severe water outages amid maintenance issues at Durban Heights Waterworks.

The municipality needs to come up with a strategy regarding the plumbing contractors’ issues.” Speaking on the independent plumbers issue, Xaba said, “With regard to water and sanitation contractors, I must indicate that engagements with the former contractors are ongoing, and I do not wish to conduct those discussions through the media.” The City is currently locked in a bitter dispute with the plumbers after the municipality made a change in how the plumbers work. Instead of being contracted by the city, the plumbers will now be contracted by a main contractor, who will in turn be contracted by the city. The plumbers said last week that this arrangement would be detrimental to their businesses and reduced them from being business owners to being employees of the main contractor.

Xaba also spoke about the city’s finances, stating that independent ratings agency GCR has affirmed the municipality’s AA-(ZA) long-term investment-grade credit rating and A1+(ZA) short-term rating while revising the outlook from negative to stable. He said, simply put, the municipality has maintained a strong financial position, and experts are increasingly confident that its finances will remain stable rather than decline.

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