Durban - The iconic Christmas lights, which are put up in the Durban CBD by the eThekwini Municipality to signal the beginning of the festive season, have not been switched on despite being installed two weeks ago.
The city said yesterday it could not perform its annual tradition of turning on the Christmas lights as it was working around the clock to fix street light infrastructure that had been vandalised. It said the lights could be lit by today.
The municipality has come under fire from community members as well as councillors, who described the matter as “embarrassing” and indicative of the collapse of municipal governance.
But ANC councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said the delays in turning on the lights was because of vandalism.
“I have spoken to the head of electricity who told me that there were issues of vandalism that they are attending to. Remember that the Christmas lights are connected to the street lights, and the city officials are addressing those problems. They started addressing those problems yesterday, and today and tomorrow (Friday) they will finish and the street lights should be on,” he said.
Madlala took issue with the opposition party councillors who criticised the municipality publicly without first addressing the problem internally as they are part of governance in the city.
“It is unacceptable that someone who is getting paid every month to govern and is an elected official and has a constituency that expects them to deliver is crying like a member of the public.
“They should hold the officials of the city accountable, and if that fails they should hold political leadership like mayor Mxolisi Kaunda accountable and demand answers from them, instead of complaining as though they were mere members of the public with no power.”
Ratepayer organisations and opposition party councillors said the Christmas lights matter was just one in a string of issues that pointed to serious failures in governance.
Asad Gaffar of the Westville Ratepayers’ Association said the city was collapsing at a faster pace than people realised.
“We are crying for them to fix the normal street lights, but you expect them to put up the Christmas lights. The Christmas lights were the main attraction in Durban when I was growing up,” he said. “It’s not just the lights, it’s the city that looks unkempt, and that is affecting tourism, which is affecting employment.”
He said that in previous years, the area around the Durban beachfront would be packed at this time of the year.
He said it was clear that the leadership of the city was not interested in addressing the problems that were affecting it, and instead were inward looking and worried about themselves.
DA councillor in the CBD, Sharmaine Sewshanker, said the situation was embarrassing.
“The lights were installed very late this year but it’s a very poor display … it’s really disappointing as many locals and tourists look forward to the display. With the influx of visitors and tourists tipped to visit eThekwini this festive season I would have thought that eThekwini Municipality would have put on one of their best displays ever. But like the thousands of street lights that don't work, it’s no surprise that the lights went out on the much-awaited display.”
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi agreed that the situation was an embarrassment.
“One wonders what is happening in this city, nothing seems to be going right. People are complaining about water, electricity, roads that have collapsed on to people’s houses after the recent rains.
“It is high time that the officials come out and tell us what exactly is the problem, if they are being interfered with which prevents them from being able to do their jobs, and to explain if the municipality still has any money left in its coffers,” he said.
DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said that the issue of the Christmas lights could not be looked at in isolation.
“It’s not surprising that the lights are not working, the issue of the lights is nothing, it is a reflection of the failure of leadership and planning in the city.”