Intimidation by 'business forums' among factors causing dry taps in KZN, say municipalities

KwaZulu-Natal municipalities say ageing infrastructure, gunmen allegedly demanding water tenders and a skills shortage are to blame for a lack of service delivery.

The province has had challenges with providing clean water to its citizens, a point emphasised by a South African Human Rights Commission report in September.

The report found some municipalities had violated the rights of residents by failing to provide clean drinking water.

Municipalities got a chance to detail the challenges they face regarding water provision during an engagement with the national executive committee of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) in Durban on Thursday.

Geoffrey Khumalo, acting manager of iLembe municipality, raised the issue of alleged disruptions by business forums.

“It’s getting very violent. I don’t know how Salga can assist. They come with rifles to meetings, even for simple things like water tankers. They want their water tankers to be the ones hired to deliver to communities instead of the ones brought through procurement systems.”

He listed illegal connections for electricity and water as well as vandalism and theft of infrastructure as other factors.

“We’ve entered a new era where everything that is metal is stolen. Unfortunately, some of the infrastructure can't be changed. It has to be metal because it talks to the strength of the material. As a result, you find many municipalities are spending a lot to secure sites.”

Provincial Salga chairperson Thami Ntuli conceded another factor that affects service delivery is ageing infrastructure.

He said the funding model municipalities operate under also poses a challenge to their ability to replace ageing infrastructure.

“The budget allocated to municipalities cannot afford to sufficiently address infrastructure maintenance. Salga has been raising the discussion that the funding model poses challenges in the provision of services.”

He said load-shedding was affecting water pumps and forcing them to reprioritise resourcing to mitigate its effect, which posed another challenge to service delivery provision.

“Another important factor which has arrived that we had not budgeted for is load-shedding. Municipalities did not budget for diesel and generators”

Another factor is a skills shortage in the public sector, especially engineers. Ntuli said qualified engineers move to the private sector for better pay packages.

“The framework prevents municipalities from paying as much as the private sector.”

Salga president Bheke Stofile also spoke about the shrinking pool of qualified engineers in the public sector.

“ From 2005 to date the municipal system has lost on engineering big time. Municipalities are beginning to recoup, consolidate and employ.”

Stofile said national policy choices through the tendering system take away the capability of municipality systems and leave room for corruption and violence, referring to business forums and water tankers.

He said business mafias were threatening other businesses and officials when tenders were given.

He suggested water provision should be a function of the municipality working with the department of water and sanitation only.

Stofile said the issue of business forums could only be addressed by national government.

He said municipalities were generally performing despite the challenges.

Ntuli said they would prioritise service delivery in spite of the challenges.

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