Durban - The provision of key basic services such as water and electricity in the eThekwini Municipality should be carried out by municipal staff in order to build internal capacity and reduce the reliance on external contractors.
This is the view of Durban mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, who was speaking during a media briefing yesterday on decisions taken in council last month.
Kaunda shared concerns that some contractors “have a sense of entitlement” to get work from the City, which has led to them threatening or intimidating council employees.
He also touched on the issue of attacks and intimidation of City workers. He was speaking following yet another murder of a council employee, whom he described as a hard worker.
Khumbulani Khumalo, who was the manager for community services at water and sanitation, was murdered near Inanda last week.
“We urge the police to pursue those responsible for the murder as well as those that planned the murder.”
Several City staff members have been murdered in the past few months. Some were shot dead inside their offices, including Nkosinathi Amos Ngcobo, who was killed in February last year.
Speaking on Khumalo’s murder, Kaunda said the shooting was a tragedy that had robbed the City of one of its hardest-working employees.
The mayor expressed concern about the City’s reliance on external contractors. “We have to in-source some of the basic services like water and electricity. We have to build internal capacity so that we do not rely on external contractors. The more you have outsourced services, you’re bound to have challenges.
“Some of those challenges we have had experienced before in this City where contractors will go and confront people and intimidate them. We could have prevented that if we were using internal capacity rather than relying more on outsourcing. That is where we want to put more emphasis as the City to build our internal capacity.”
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the party wanted a deep-dive investigation into the attacks on City employees.
“The situation is so bad that municipal employees are going to be reluctant to do their jobs for fear of being killed.”
Nkosi said the issue of outsourcing was a serious concern. “We have a close to 30 000 workers, yet we do not see them on site, all we see are contractors. Are the City employees getting paid to walk around in depots? We are in this situation because someone made a wrong decision,” said Nkosi.
DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said they did not believe that there was a lack of internal capacity.
“It is just a corrupt relationship between some contractors and some officials. We hear allegations that municipal staff sit at depots doing nothing because management prioritises contractors.
“It is therefore not a lack of internal capacity, but a lack of proper management. Unfortunately, those who try to do the right thing find themselves being victims.”