“KEEPING YOU IN THE KNOW”

mAYOR TABLes DRAFT BuDGeT FOR 2017/18 TO enHAnCe

seRViCe DeLiVeRY

ETHEKWINI Mayor Zandile Gumede tabled her maiden R45 billion draft budget for the

2017/18 fi nancial year at a Full Council seating held yesterday, 30 March at the Durban Exhibition Centre.in her address, Mayor Gumede

said the City’s consolidated draft budget for the 2017/18 fi nancial year is informed by the Municipality’s long-term fi nancial strategy with emphasis on affordability and long-term sustainability focused on alleviating poverty and social imbalances through job creation, youth development and ensuring radical economic transformation by creating an enabling platform for business to fl ourish.“i am the people’s Mayor and

this is the people’s budget. everything that we do is for our people who have chosen

us to lead this City,” Mayor Gumede said, reminding the audience that this year is a year of deepening unity and the year of celebrating President O.r. Tambo.she also expressed her deepest

condolences to the family and friends of the late political stalwart, ahmed Kathrada. “We respect your contribution

in the struggle and we will always remember and honour your role in the liberation of our people,” she said.she said the 2017/18 draft

budget is comprised of a capital budget of r7.5 billion and an operational budget of r37.5 billion which funds the continued provision of services provided by the Municipality.“We certainly believe that this

budget delivers on the promises we have made at the start of our term in offi ce on 23 august last year. This draft budget

gives us impetus to strategically implement the key catalytic projects which are set to create thousands of investment and employment opportunities. This is in keeping with the Municipality’s new radical economic Transformation Framework launched earlier this year,” Mayor Gumede said.she said the focus of the

budget will be directed to the key areas keeping in line with the City’s promise to improve the lives of residents.“This draft budget will also aid

in bridging the gap between the rich and poor, mainly focusing on underdeveloped communities,” she added.“all interventions including

catalytic projects to grow our economy, food security programmes, job creation and ensuring that women as well as youth development programmes have all been budgeted for.

We will continue to provide basic services such as grass cutting, verge maintenance, robot repairs, as well as prioritise cleanliness and drive inner City regeneration projects to build a City we can all be proud of.”Mayor Gumede said ridding

the City of social ills will also ensure that eThekwini is a safer and more resilient City together with the roll out of the new citywide, high-tech closed-circuit television project which will include License recognition cameras and 24 hour monitoring.“The draft budget will also

ensure my commitment to eradicate informal settlements to ensure that all residents live in humane conditions and their quality of life is improved for the better,” she said.

ETHEKWiniWEEKLy BULLETin

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By 2030 eThekwini will be africa’s most caring and liveable city 31 March 2017 [issue 72]

The “People’s mayor” eThekwini mayor Zandile gumede delivered her maiden draft budget for the 2017/18 fi nancial year at a Full Council seating on Thursday. gumede said the draft budget was “the people’s budget” and was centered around meeting the needs of people in the City.

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2 eThekwini weekly BulleTin issue 72

HARD WORK BY CiTY FiReFiGHTeRs TO BATTLe BLAZe LAuDeD

Praise has been heaped on Municipal firefighters who battled a massive fire after a warehouse owned by Transnet caught alight at Bayhead precinct, south of Durban, on 24 March.This week, MeC for economic Development, Tourism and environmental affairs, sihle Zikalala, Councillor Nkosenhle Madlala, representatives from Transnet and City officials conducted a site inspection.Zikalala thanked firefighters

who worked tirelessly to douse the flames.“The City, my department

and Transnet are investigating the cause of the fire. We do not want to speculate as we are awaiting a report into what happened. We want to thank the fire-fighters as it was not an easy situation. We also thank them for responding on time,” he said.

Zikalala also assured all members of the community in the south of Durban that government was attending to the matter.eThekwini Municipality’s

executive Committee

also lauded the efforts of eThekwini firefighters who were on scene for a number of days dousing the flames.Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer,

acting as chairperson of the meeting on 28 March,

said the efforts of the City’s firefighters had to be commended.“There were no casualties

from the fire. i was on scene on 25 March, and saw the fire first-hand. The side of the warehouse kept blowing up every few minutes. Our firefighters on scene did a sterling job,” Councillor Peer said.Chairwoman of the

Governance and Human resources Committee Councillor Barbara Fontein said: “i would like to congratulate our Fire Department. Thankfully there were no lives lost and they did a sterling job. This has also been an opportunity for us as the City to highlight what we could have done better to ensure that we are even better prepared the next time.”

Municipal firefighters worked tirelessly to put out flames after a warehouse in the south of Durban caught alight.

City hosts learning exChange with sri lanka loCal authorities

a high-level delegation from the sri Lankan Federation of Local authorities (FsLGa) visited Durban this week to learn about the City’s transformation process, and how eThekwini went about developing inclusive policies and plans. sri Lanka, like south africa,

has recently emerged from a period of violent unrest and the delegation was in the City to attend a learning exchange focussing on Urban strategic Planning. The exchange follows a

visit from members of the sri Lankan ministry last year. it was facilitated by the Municipal institute of Learning (MiLe) and the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) in the spirit of Localising

sustainable Development Goals (sDGs) and facilitating city-to-city learning, The learning exchange

provided a platform for officials to engage on challenges and opportunities in the practice and implementation of urban planning and development management.

During the learning exchange, delegates heard presentations and had discussions on the City’s transformation process and the strategic planning process, such as long term development planning. integrated development plans raised much interest among the delegates with numerous questions being asked.

Nimesha Thiwankara from the FsLGa explained that people in sri Lanka lack political understanding and he would like to take lessons from the City on developing community engagement platforms. “For true development to

happen and address the needs of our communities, strategists have to consult at grass roots level. The engagement in developing the long term development framework and integrated development plans in eThekwini is commendable as it was inclusive of all stakeholders,” said Thiwankara.Chief secretary for the

North Western Province in sri Lanka, P.B.M sirisena, said the experience was enlightening.

EThekwini Municipality hosted a high-level Sri Lankan delegation during a learning exchange on Urban Strategic Planning.

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issue 72 eThekwini weekly BulleTin 3

iCC is A HuGe AsseT TO THe CiTY’s eCOnOmiC GROWTH

THe Durban inkosi albert Luthuli international Convention Centre (iCC) continues to excel in driving local economic growth after generating a total of 1.2 million visitors which translated to a staggering r4.3 billion contribution to the country’s gross domestic product. This was revealed by the

organisation’s Chief executive Officer, Lindiwe rakharebe during the release of their 2016 annual report on 28 March.“The vast majority of this

contribution profited the region economy directly by adding R4.1 billion to the province’s gross geographic product while creating and sustaining 9 820 jobs in KwaZulu-Natal alone,” she said.rakharebe said the

centre, which is an entity of eThekwini Municipality, generated revenue totalling R161 million for the

2016 financial year which surpassed the previous year’s performance by r4.7 million.“This clearly indicates our

sustainability as an entity. We no longer depend on the City’s coffers as the centre remained profitable for six consecutive financial year. This is also attested to by the clean audit we received for a third consecutive year which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to good governance, statutory compliance and strong financial controls,” she said. rakharebe added that

the company maintained an impressive net profit percentage of over 20 percent and showed a 4.7 percent year-on-year growth in profits from R31.5 million in 2015 to r33 million currently.Furthermore, rakharebe said

in 2016 they created and sustained 10 000 jobs.“We successfully hosted

397 events last year which is a 14 percent increase

when compared to 2015 figures of 349 events. This is because we host follow-up meetings with our clients. We do this to find out if we met their expectations while hosting and what we can do to improve and make their events more memorable next time,” she added. rakharebe said this culture

has worked in their favour as most events continuously prefer the iCC as their venue of choice. “as we i address you today, we have a huge line-up of big conferences that will take place in our venue this year. attracting world class events

also produces remarkable benefits for the hospitality industry. “Last year we facilitated 850 000 room-nights for the local hospitality industry,” said rakharebe.she repeatedly thanked her

team for their dedication to deliver service excellence which earned the venue a number of awards including

africa’s leading meeting and conference centre, south africa’s best managed company and being ranked in the top 15 convention centres in the world.rakharebe also said the

centre plays a massive role in social investment such as offering in-service training, take a girl child to work and hosting fundraising events for the needy.Chairperson of the

economic Development and Planning Committee Councillor sipho Kaunda applauded the Municipal entity on contributing towards economic empowerment. Kaunda said the iCC

is a good example of an all-rounder organisation as it excels in social and economic activities. “With such accomplishments, i am confident that the centre will attract more big events to further accelerate the local economy and raise the global profile of our City,” he added.

One of the Durban Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre’s board directors, Themba Ngcobo (left) accepts the annual report from ICC CEO Lindiwe Rakharebe. He praised her leadership skills which earned the entity substantial economic benefit.

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if you would like to submit feedback or contribute to eThekwini Weekly Bulletin

EdiToriaL TEamEdiTor: Tozi Mthethwa, Head of Communications • ConTEnT EdiTor: Gugu sisilana

SUB-EdiTor: Nondumiso Mathomane • WriTErS: Charmel Payet, sohana singh and

Nonduduzo Ngcongo

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WARD COmmiTTees in THe CiTY TO BeCOme OPeRATiOnAL in mAY

WarD committees in eThekwini Municipality will officially start operation in May.a progress report on the

establishment of ward committees in the City was tabled at the executive Committee meeting held on 28 March.The report also presented

upcoming activities in preparation for the ward committees to commence with their operations.Proposed sub-committees

to be established to assist ward committees with their functions, including socio-economic and infrastructural development issues within wards, were also presented to the executive Committee for approval. The report stated that

eThekwini Municipality successfully established 105 ward committees in November 2016. Five remaining ward

committees not established due to various reasons were established on 26 March.The verification process

for the ward committees established in November has been completed and the formal registration with the Municipality has commenced. The official inauguration of ward committees is proposed to take place on 8 april.Thereafter their induction will

be conducted from 22 to 23 april. Ward committees will officially start operation in May, the report said.With regards to the elections

held on 26 March, the outstanding wards were 12, 23, 43, 75 and 95 and ward committees have been established in all these wards which is a great achievement for the City since the situation has been hostile particularly in wards 12, 75 and 95, the report stated.However, the intervention

of eThekwini Municipality security Management team, south african Police service and Metro Police provided the highest level of protection and were able to deal with aggrieved parties. The public is urged to note that the opportunity to lodge formal objections is available.regarding sub-committees,

according to clause 11(d) of the rules regulating the establishment of ward committees: a ward committee is permitted to establish one or more sub-committees necessary for the performance of their function and to involve organisations broadly in existence within a ward. each sub-committee will be chaired by a member of the ward committee and the members of the sub-committee will be appointed by ward committees. Nine sub-committees are being proposed which align with

the clusters existing within the Municipality and include sports, arts, culture and recreation; transports, roads and stormwater; youth, gender and vulnerable groups; electricity, water and sanitation; health, safety and security; human settlements, cleansing and solid waste; skills development and job creation as well as entrepreneurship and small business support.The sub-committees, once

approved by Council, will then be presented to the ward committees together with the terms of reference to assist them with the scope of the functioning of the sub-committees. Necessary training will also be provided to guide the ward committees thereby ensuring that the sub-committees become effective and submit reports to the relevant structures on key issues impacting local communities.

EThekwini ward committees will start operating in May after residents came out in numbers to vote during the ward committee elections held across the Municipality. The Independent Electoral Commission administered the elections.