Intimidation, ageing infrastructure and skills shortages hamper KZN service delivery

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, as emphasised by a SA 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 SA 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 and 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 said another factor that affects service delivery is ageing infrastructure.

He said the funding model municipalities operate under 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.

Municipalities have not budgeted for diesel and generators, he said.

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

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

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.

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