Durban — Opposition parties in the eThekwini Municipality have condemned the City for “jumping up and pretending” to be delivering services, so that they seem to be working for the people, with an aim to get voters’ trust.
This comes after the municipality announced on its social media page that its employees in the Parks and Recreation unit are working hard to ensure that cemeteries across the municipality are kept clean.
The workers were recently spotted at the B-section, Illovu cemetery cutting grass and tidying up the graveyard.
There has been an outcry from residents in the areas surrounding the City over unkempt verges. IFP caucus leader Mdu Nkosi said real leaders are those who deliver services to the residents throughout the year, not only when it is December, and when there is an approaching election.
Nkosi said the people deserve service delivery all the time since they pay municipal rates and other taxes. He said the employees and their leaders must be committed to their work. He added that the City needs to ensure that employees’ working conditions are conducive to them performing their duties to their expected levels of delivery.
“So when we only see them now having all these programmes, such as grass cutting and others, the biggest question is: What would have happened all these years? The only answer would be that they are only doing this now that the elections are approaching,” Nkosi said.
Ethekwini Ward 89 IFP councillor Mbangeni Mjadu said that the municipality was currently cutting grass at the Unit 17 cemetery using council employees. Mjadu said previously service providers were hired.
Ethekwini Ward 88 councillor Ziphozonke Mathe said the Zwelethu cemetery in uMlazi was cleaned on Monday.
DA caucus leader councillor Thabani Mthethwa said they had not noticed any improvement because it still took forever for councillors to have issues attended to.
“The municipality must now stop painting a misleading picture of what the reality is out there, which is poor service delivery all over the City,” Mthethwa added.
Facebook user Sbongile Patience Shozi pleaded with the City to clean the Newlands East cemetery, adding that they have had to clean their relatives’ resting places themselves.
The eThekwini spokesperson said the Parks and Recreation Unit programme was to ensure that community members are happy with having clean and tidy surroundings, as well as cemeteries.
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Daily News