Durban – The office of eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda has dismissed the allegation that he was failing to lead the city.
In the city's response to Xubera Institute for Research and Development statement that Kaunda was lacking capabilities to lead the city, mayor’s spokesperson Mluleki Mntungwa said the allegation was baseless.
Mntungwa said the recent assessment by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) indicates that the municipality is functional and financially viable.
Furthermore, Mntungwa said the Audit-General gave the municipality an unqualified audit report for five years in succession, adding that Cogta also commended the city for improving waste management.
“Despite the current economic climate, we are able to maintain an AA+ investment grade credit rating with 51 days cash on hand. Through Kaunda's leadership, eThekwini Municipality continues to pay timeously for bulk services rendered by Eskom and uMgeni Water.
“While we acknowledge that we still have challenges caused by ageing infrastructure and April 22 floods, there is visible progress on the ground as water and electricity provision has improved significantly,” concluded the mayor’s office.
In an invitation that was issued by the Institute’s founder Xolani Dube to ratepayers, the business community, non-profit organisations, academic institutions and general public on Tuesday, he accused Kaunda of lacking capabilities to lead and said his institute will host a seminar to discuss ways of fighting corruption in the eThekwini Municipality.
The event will take place at Aha Gateway Hotel in uMhlanga on Thursday evening. Dube said the seminar aims to expose the depth of a bottomless rot in eThekwini municipality that is under the coalition of ANC, National Freedom Party (NFP) and EFF and a cocktail of other so-called small political parties. Dube said the event will discuss an urgent and immediate programme of action to curb the corruption.
“The proposed focus areas would be current mayor Mxolisi Kaunda’s lack of capability to lead the municipality and call for him to resign as well as the national government’s intervention through placing the city under an administrator. The time for lamenting is over. We owe our children a better future and at the at least, our citizens are a functioning municipality,” said Dube
Among the people to speak at the event was former eThekwini deputy mayor and Abantu Batho Congress founder Philani Mavundla.
In a statement issued by the party, Mavundla would give detail account of what party has done in response to the door to door visit at his home by the civil rights movement, Umsinsi wokuzimilela which stormed his house two weeks ago demanding to account for what he has done since people voted for his party in the last local government
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