Durban – eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda is set to meet with Westville ratepayers on Thursday as part of City-wide engagements with ratepayers to discuss pertinent issues of service delivery.
The municipality said in a statement on Tuesday that Kaunda would meet with the Westville Ratepayers Association on Thursday evening, as part of ongoing efforts to unlock bottlenecks that frustrate the delivery of services to residents.
The meeting comes after the ratepayers association had declared a dispute with the City over the tariff increases, which came into effect on July 1, and resolved not to pay rates.
The association said the money would instead be paid into a trust account pending the outcome of the dispute.
The mayor said ratepayers were an integral part of the City because more than 75% of municipal rates were used to fund public transport, roads, public safety, health services, sports and recreation amenities.
The City said that at Tuesday’s Executive Council meeting, Kaunda assured residents that the leadership in the City was committed to maintaining a stable, functional, responsive, and service delivery driven municipality.
“This means we will continue to provide basic services such as grass cutting, verge maintenance, robot repairs, as well as prioritise cleanliness. Our response to grievances, be it they are about water shortages, potholes, electricity outages or defective traffic lights, needs to be effective and efficient. The demands from residents are reasonable, they just want service delivery, and we need to deliver on this. We have a firm belief that we must collaborate to grow and develop our City,” said Kaunda.
“There are plans to meet with ratepayers in the municipality to unpack our service delivery plans. We are aware of the position that the Westville Ratepayers Association have taken to withhold the payment of rates and we will be meeting with them and hope that we will be able to find each other.
“The municipality is required to fulfil its constitutional mandate and relies on certain legislated income streams, such as revenue collected from rates, in order to deliver on its responsibilities,” said Kaunda.
The mayor added that the municipality had been hard hit by a series of disasters including floods and civil unrest.
“Despite these challenges which destroyed our infrastructure and affected critical services, the City is not failing. Our reconstruction and recovery plans indicate that we are indeed turning the tide,” said Kaunda.
The meeting with the Westville Ratepayers Association is scheduled to take place at the Westville Civic Centre on Thursday, August 10 at 6pm.