Durban — The eThekwini Municipality has reported that the hijacking of municipal vehicles is hampering service delivery.
The municipality said that service delivery in several parts of eThekwini was being severely hampered by a sharp rise in the number of hijacking incidents involving municipal and contractor vehicles.
This was according to eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda during his State of the City Address on Wednesday.
Kaunda said that in the current financial year alone, no fewer than 95 vehicles had been hijacked from municipal staff and contractors. Not only does this delay the delivery of critical services to communities, but it also subjects employees to severe physical and psychological trauma.
“These incidents bring untold trauma on our employees and they disrupt urgent repairs and maintenance. We condemn these acts of criminality as they put the lives of our employees at risk and they delay the delivery of services. We call upon communities to work with us and with the police to bring perpetrators to book,” Kaunda said.
He said that the rampant crime in the city was also hindering the delivery of basic services in that their employees were targets for carjackings and robberies while they work on infrastructure in various communities. This brings untold trauma to their employees and disrupts the delivery of urgent repairs and maintenance.
Kaunda also called on communities to condemn this scourge as it delayed the delivery of services.
City Fleet Unit head Malcolm Joshua said that light commercial vehicles are mostly targeted, adding that hotspot areas were Mayville, Folweni, Umlazi, KwaMashu, Inanda, Zwelibomvu, Hammarsdale and KwaNdengezi.
Joshua said that quite often communities blamed the municipality for delays in effecting infrastructure repairs, not knowing that a crew that had been sent to undertake those repairs was hijacked, leading to delays, especially because the vehicles that are targeted belong to core service delivery units such as electricity, water and sanitation and roads and stormwater, among others.
“The City is working with the police to root out this scourge, but communities also have a role to play in keeping our teams safe while they deliver services throughout the municipality,” Joshua said.
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