From left ward 13 Councillor Reginald Cloete, Acting Deputy City Manager for Human Settlements and Infrastructure
Maxwell Mthembu, and Deputy Chairperson of the Finance Committee Councillor Bheki Mgwengwe on the site where a clinic will be built in Luganda.

THE CITY has received funding from national government to fast track the repairs of infrastructure damaged during the floods last year. This was revealed by eThekwini Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda as Municipal teams, led by senior officials, visited various sites across the Henry Bona Zone on 24 March as part of the Mayoral Operation Sukuma Sakhe (OSS) outreach programme.

The purpose of OSS is to track, assess and provide feedback on the progress of service delivery programmes in communities. “We have received funds from national government to repair damaged infrastructure. We received R1.2 billion to repair infrastructure for engineering related services, R228 million for water and sanitation and R94 million for housing,” he said. Mayor Kaunda said work is being undertaken across the zone to improve service delivery. Henry Bona Zone covers wards 13, 14, 15 and 16.

Mayor Kaunda noted that there are water and electricity challenges in some parts of the zone. “We urge residents to report stolen electricity cables which is one of the biggest challenges in the zone. Most of the outages in these areas are due to cable theft,” he said. As part of the oversight visit, Mayor Kaunda visited KwaNdengezi Clinic which operates 24 hours a day. Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of the Finance Committee Councillor Bheki Mgwengwe visited the Luganda Community Hall which was recently completed. He said a clinic will be built next to the hall. Acting Deputy City Manager for Human Settlements and Infrastructure Maxwell Mthembu said those illegally connected to the electrical grid are encouraged to apply for the 80/20 programme. “This means they will pay 20 percent of the amount they owe the City whenever they are buying prepaid electricity tokens. 

This forms part of discouraging resident to illegally connect electricity,” said Mthembu. He said the City will repair broken streetlights in the next two weeks in the area. Challenges raised by residents included housing, sewer spillages, overgrown vegetation, damaged guard rails, infrastructure vandalism, and unemployment.