The eThekwini Municipality has hired an engineer to set up a team to deal with non-revenue water. The municipality has lost R4.9 billion from water that is unaccounted for.
Image: FILE
Public frustration over governance failures, global conflict, and local accountability dominate today's submissions.
News that eThekwini Municipality has hired an experienced engineer to reduce non-revenue water losses raises several questions.
On July 24, 2023, it was reported that the municipality had made “an impassioned call” for retired engineers to rejoin the Water and Sanitation unit to assist with managing infrastructure and training future engineers. Insofar as some of those engineers may have taken early retirement because their path to promotion was closed off by so-called transformation — meaning racial quotas — it suggests that a void in experience and expertise was deliberately created in pursuit of ideology.
Even if that was not entirely the case, it points to institutional memory being discarded. Yet the municipality’s media release expressed hope that retired engineers could provide “skills transfer and mentorship”. That request itself indicates that, in the haste to impose quotas, there was no effective contingency plan to address the resulting skills gap.
By 2023, Durban’s water loss had risen to 56.2%, up from 36.85% in 2017/18, according to the Office of the Auditor-General. This raises a critical question: why was nothing done until July 2023, when a desperate appeal was made for retired engineers to assist?
Now, three years later, with water losses costing R4.9 billion, what became of that initiative? The lack of progress suggests that ideology has failed to resolve the crisis it helped create.
A single engineer, Vishal Poona, has now been appointed to tackle the problem. One can only sympathise, given the scale of the challenge. He must also work alongside the head of Water and Sanitation, Ednick Msweli, whose ability to prevent or manage the crisis raises its own questions. How was this not addressed earlier?
If any retired engineers did respond to the 2023 call, they likely encountered the same systemic issues that remain today — entrenched inefficiencies that are difficult to reverse. The task ahead is formidable. | Duncan du Bois Bluff.
The suspected attack on Donald Trump — though details remain unclear — is to be condemned, as violence has no place in resolving disputes.
That said, the incident comes as little surprise to some observers. Trump’s foreign policy decisions over the past year, including controversial military actions and escalating tensions, have drawn significant criticism.
His actions have, in the view of critics, increased personal risk and limited his freedom to operate publicly. The broader concern is the normalisation of aggressive political conduct and its consequences. As the saying goes, “Those who live by the sword may perish by the sword.” | Colin Bosman Newlands.
Commissioner Mkhwanazi in KwaZulu-Natal has warned protesters of possible arrests as community-led actions intensify.
Some protesters claim they are exposing illegal businesses and undocumented individuals while law enforcement remains inactive. This perception has led to growing support for movements such as March and March, with calls for expansion into residential areas including Umlazi, Newlands, and Phoenix. | Anonymous
Support has been expressed for claims by Jacob Zuma regarding alleged irregularities during the 2024 elections.
Concerns centre on reported technical glitches and the perceived lack of decisive response from the Electoral Commission (IEC). Critics argue this reflects deeper governance issues and undermines public trust in democratic processes. | Kamal Panday
DAILY NEWS