{"id":3764,"date":"2021-02-04T18:31:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T18:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2021-02-04T17:52:23","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T17:52:23","slug":"pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay","title":{"rendered":"Pietermaritzburg\u2019s sad state of decay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Bongani Hans<\/p>\n

Durban \u2013 THE MSUNDUZI Municipality has admitted it had spent less on infrastructure maintenance, which has led to the decay of the Pietermaritzburg central business district (CBD), driving South African-owned businesses out of the city.<\/p>\n

This as business owners and ratepayers raised concerns about the state the city is in and placed the blame on the Msunduzi Municipality council for neglecting its oversight role.<\/p>\n

DA councillor Bill Lambert, who once ran a clothing shop in the CBD, said this was an embodiment of the City\u2019s service delivery collapse.<\/p>\n

He said things were fine under the first post-democracy mayor, Omar Latif, as well as his predecessors Siphiwe Gwala and Hloni Zondi, but the rot started under Zanele Hlatshwayo, who was sacked following allegations of gross mismanagement, maladministration and corruption.<\/p>\n

Once a thriving business hub between the dawn of democracy and early 2000s, the Pietermaritzburg city centre finds itself in a situation that has pushed established businesses out of its CBD to be replaced largely by informal foreign-owned businesses.<\/p>\n

Lambert said he would never go back to the area to do business. \u201cIt is a collapsed city.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said despite the answers to the problem being known, \u201cnothing gets done about it. Zweli Mkhize (health minister), Blade Nzimande (higher education minister) and other Cabinet members came here, and all said this is a filthy dirty city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Msunduzi Association of Residents and Ratepayers (MARRC) and the Msunduzi Economic Development Association (Meda) were \u201cgatvol\u201d about the state of the city.<\/p>\n

While it had been reported the City had in the 2020\/21 financial year collected revenue of R5.9 billion and spent R5.1bn, pavements and pothole-riddled streets are littered with uncollected refuse.<\/p>\n

The ANC in the province recalled former mayor Themba Njilo two years ago and replaced him with Mzimkhulu Thebolla in an effort to remedy the situation.<\/p>\n

However, nothing visible has improved under Thebolla\u2019s administration. Thebolla, in January, told Independent Media\u2019s investigations unit the financially constrained council required R10bn to revitalise the City\u2019s service delivery infrastructure.<\/p>\n

During an official visit to his home city in 2019, Mkhize, who was then Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) minister said: \u201cIt brings shame to us who come from the area (city) when our Cabinet colleagues \u2026 (after) having passed-through Pietermaritzburg, highlight how dirty the city is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meda chairperson Kantha Naidoo said shops would flood whenever it rained as drainages were blocked by uncollected garbage as a result of lack of maintenance and by-laws enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you speak to business owners, there is no investor confidence. They don\u2019t want to put their money in Pietermaritzburg because there is nothing here for them,\u201d said Naidoo.<\/p>\n

Naidoo, who is also the treasurer of the CBD\u2019s Loop Street Police Station community police forum and chairperson of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business\u2019s crime-fighting forum, said she had on numerous occasions witnessed drugs being sold openly, and when this was reported to the police nothing tangible came out of it. \u201cSouth African-owned businesses have moved to malls or safer areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

MARRC chairperson Anthony Waldhausen said the situation was caused by dysfunctionality at the mayor\u2019s office down to the lower level City management.<\/p>\n

The municipality was placed under administration two years ago with former eThekwini municipal manager Sbu Sithole appointed as the administrator after it was uncovered most councillors were under-performing and the municipality was overwhelmed with irregular expenditure and maladministration.<\/p>\n

Sithole has since been replaced by Cogta chief director for municipal government and administration Scelo Duma, who declined to respond to questions. Premier Sihle Zikalala\u2019s office also declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Municipal manager Madoda Khathi told the provincial Cogta portfolio committee on January 27 his office was taking full responsibility for Pietermaritzburg being regarded as the filthy city.<\/p>\n

He said the City had, in the past, used old garbage collection trucks that frequently required repairs. \u201cAs a result, in July, council made an allocation for five trucks to be procured.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khathi said the municipality\u2019s landfill site, which had reached its lifespan, was occupied by armed illegal immigrants that made it dangerous for workers. The process of acquiring the new landfill site has taken more than 20 years. \u201cSo we have to start \u2026 from scratch in terms of identifying the (new) landfill site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thebolla told the committee he was leading awareness campaigns to galvanise the community to participate in turning the city\u2019s image around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for us to be able to deal with waste on a daily basis, we need at least 17 running trucks. For this financial year, we have procured five (trucks) in addition to the fleet that we have. At least if we can have 11 (trucks) running on a daily basis, we will be able to meet our targets,\u201d Thebolla said.<\/p>\n

ANC provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela admitted under Thebolla the city was on a slippery slope. \u201cIt is true that things are not right. We have called on the provincial government to intervene.\u201d<\/p>\n

KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) chairperson Maggie Govender warned Thebolla and City management to focus on revenue collection. \u201cWe want proper management in this municipality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cogta committee chairperson Zinhle Cele also called on the council to hold \u201cpeople accountable\u201d.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n

| Investigations Unit<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Bongani Hans Durban \u2013 THE MSUNDUZI Municipality has admitted it had spent less on infrastructure maintenance, which has led to the decay of the Pietermaritzburg central business district (CBD), driving South African-owned businesses out of the city. This as business owners and ratepayers raised concerns about the state the city is in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-3764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nPietermaritzburg\u2019s sad state of decay - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bongani Hans Durban \u2013 THE MSUNDUZI Municipality has admitted it had spent less on infrastructure maintenance, which has ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pietermaritzburg\u2019s sad state of decay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bongani Hans Durban \u2013 THE MSUNDUZI Municipality has admitted it had spent less on infrastructure maintenance, which has ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-04T18:31:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-601c343d241b0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Pietermaritzburg\u2019s sad state of decay\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-04T18:31:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay\"},\"wordCount\":876,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2021\/02\/img-601c343d241b0.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/pietermaritzburgs-sad-state-of-decay\",\"name\":\"Pietermaritzburg\u2019s sad state of decay - 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