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Municipality plays catch-up

In the last of our series taking a closer look at this year’s municipal budget, Gugu Mbonambi takes a look at the enormous service backlogs in the city

April 19, 2010 Edition 1

PLAYING catch-up. That’s what the eThekwini municipality has been doing for more than a decade as it tries to redress the infrastructural backlogs of the past which, in areas like KwaMashu and Umlazi, has meant starting virtually from scratch.

And the harsh reality is that it expects the situation to start levelling out only in six to eight years.

“There is a lag between what we spend and when the revenue will start coming in,” city manager Michael Sutcliffe said, explaining that while the city’s rates base might have expanded considerably in the past decade it did not necessarily result in more income for the city coffers because of the high levels of poverty in the metro.

The city’s focus, however, was not only on addressing the backlogs in capital projects, like the provision of housing, but also in maintenance of existing infrastructure which, in many former whites-only suburbs, was near crumbling.

The city was spending about 10 percent (R2.1 billion) of its operating budget on maintenance, 6.5 percent higher than the national average, but this was still insufficient, said city treasurer Krish Kumar, adding that addressing issues like leaking water pipes and potholes was a key focus of this year’s budget.

On housing, the city was sitting with a backlog of 200 000 houses and says it will take at least 20 years to meet that demand. This time frame will, however, depend on the roll-out of government funding which has been reduced in recent years.

Sutcliffe last week said reduced national and provincial government subsidies had compelled the city to cut down on its housing programme.

The city’s annual target to build 16 000 houses had to be reduced to 13 500 houses. This would be reviewed depending on the availability of funding.

“The non-payment of subsidies for services such as housing means the municipality has to allocate its own resources to make up for the shortfall,” he said. Sutcliffe added that each RDP house built by the municipality cost about R110 000 whereas the national government gave the municipality about R60 000, meaning R50 000 had to come from the city.

Housing was one of the services which in terms of the constitution was a responsibility of provincial and national government but has been allocated to local government. Sutcliffe also admitted that politics had played a role in slowing down housing provision, saying the city’s identification of the most suitable plots for low-cost housing did not always correspond with politicians’ desire to please their constituencies.

Electricity and water backlogs of À 504 and 85 326 respectively are also linked to the city’s housing programme.

According to the budget report illegal power connections and cable theft cost the city about R18m in lost revenue annually and was also a threat to service provision.

“The municipality has approved a plan to provide an interim supply of electricity to 223 500 households in 572 informal settlements across eThekwini,” the report read.

But S’bu Zikode, president of Abahlali baseMjodolo (shack dwellers’ movement), said while he acknowledged that housing was not something that could be solved overnight, the city’s failure to engage with shack dwellers was a major concern.

“The real issue is that the city doesn’t seem to have any political will to engage with the community, especially shack dwellers who are the beneficiaries of RDP houses. Even if the municipality’s resources are limited they are failing to address the housing crisis.

“Everything is about giving tenders to friends as opposed to people who are qualified to deliver proper houses,” he said.

Zikode said RDP houses in Ntuzuma and Siyanda were sub-standard and did not have water or electricity.

The issue of shoddy housing in the municipality has always been a contentious issue with opposition parties calling for more stringent monitoring strategies to be put in place.

Last month the city’s housing committee chairman, Nigel Gumede, said he did not disagree that some of the houses were substandard, but blamed this on the fact that they were built on “unsuitable land”.

He said this was caused by pressure from the community as they did not want to move to more suitable land.

There was also a scarcity of land.