Durban – eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said he was not intimidated by the litigation against the municipality and other departments over the beach and sewer crisis.
He said this on Wednesday while addressing the water challenges at uMlazi, south of Durban, which has been without water since Friday.
Towards the end of 2022, political party ActionSA filed papers in the Durban High Court to compel Co-operative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma; Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu; the KwaZulu-Natal government; eThekwini Municipality and others to fix the sewage crisis affecting Durban beaches.
IOL reported that the court case brought by ActionSA revealed how the metro started polluting rivers even before the April floods. The court papers reveal how several sewer pump stations were not repaired for months, leaving sewers to pollute rivers and then beaches.
Kaunda said they would go to court and say they needed R109 billion to solve eThekwini Municipality’s infrastructure challenges.
“If people are going to help us with that we are more than happy to welcome the intervention,” he said.
Kaunda said there were things that were beyond the municipality’s control and what was exacerbating the problem was the ageing infrastructure.
“If you are taking us to court we cannot change that; we had floods and a flow of rain which was never seen in a hundred years in this city,” explained Kaunda.
He said the municipality had to focus on its plans to tackle the challenges.
“We know what needs to be fixed and we know the interventions that we need to do,” he said.
Kaunda said the sewer pipe that was leaking at uMlazi was being fixed. He said pump stations and wastewater treatment works were being repaired according to the plan that had been developed.
He said the national and provincial government, and the city, led by Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu, were working to address the challenges facing not only eThekwini but the whole country.
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