Durban - The DA caucus leader in uMgungundlovu, Hazel Lake, said the party has refused to participate in a three-day annual strategic planning meeting at a top holiday resort in the Drakensberg.
Lake said the meeting did not need to be hosted at a resort and this was an unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ money.
She added that the municipal officials are well paid and are able to pay for expensive resort trips themselves.
“This municipality has a perfectly good council chamber for this sort of meeting. We see no need to run up huge bills at holiday venues. Residents are aware of billing problems, technical meter challenges, meter reading problems, visible water wastage, long water outages and failing infrastructure. ‘Financial constraints’ is always the reason given for not improving service delivery,” she said.
Lake added that the municipality’s main focus should be in improving the lives of the residents by delivering services.
“The municipality simply needs to focus on the basics, which never seem to improve, and not waste time and money on strategic planning, which happens annually but never makes any discernible difference to the daily lives of residents.
“uMgungundlovu Municipality, must in 2023 focus on basic and simple service delivery and helping residents receive the water and sanitation services they pay for.
“This will enable the municipality to improve the collection rates (currently at 40%) and be in a better financial position to service the indigent areas,” said Lake.