EThekwini City Manager Musa Mbhele and mayor Cyril Xaba during an engagement with Independent Media editors on Monday.
Image: Supplied
Ethekwini Municipality mayor, Cyril Xaba has defended the R22 million which the City has spent on statues of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, arguing it will boost tourism.
The statues of the two liberation icons, will be unveiled by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday. The construction of these statues has drawn criticism from opposition parties who have accused the City of prioritising statues over water and electricity, amid persistent outages in the municipality.
Speaking in during engagement with Independent Media editors on a range of issues on Monday, Xaba justified the building of statues by saying that while the City was dealing with other issues, it was also important to continue implementing measures that would increase tourist numbers and grow the economy.
“The two giant statues of our liberation stalwarts that will be unveiled by the president tomorrow forms part of this drive to create additional tourism offerings in the city. Such projects play a key role in catalysing tourism growth, so if you want to spin the money you must first spend the money,” said Xaba.
He further announced that eThekwini’s tourism sector is returning to pre-COVID-19 growth levels, as demonstrated by the increase in visitor numbers during the 2025 festive season.
To support this growth, Xaba said the City is ramping up efforts to expand tourism infrastructure in order to develop more tourism products that will encourage visitors to stay longer in Durban.
“When the city built the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the Durban International Convention Centre and uShaka Marine World, the sole purpose was to create tourism infrastructure that would position eThekwini as the preferred destination for major international sporting events, meetings and entertainment. With the statues, we are leveraging our liberation heritage to boost tourism and create jobs,” said Xaba
On Friday, the DA’s mayoral candidate in eThekwini, Haniff Hoosen penned an open letter to Ramaphosa, pleading with him to cancel the unveiling. He argued that spending R22 million on statues comes at the height of persistent water and electricity outages, which affect the residents of eThekwini.
“Mr President, your visit to Durban is welcomed but it must not be about the unveiling of statues, it must be about your working group you appointed, it must be about holding the City officials to account. People of eThekwini don’t need statues but water,” said Hoosen.
During the engagement, Xaba also urged residents to take advantage of the city's debt relief programme while it is still available, as it was fixed arrangement.
Last year, the City announced a 50% discount on outstanding rates and utility debt for ratepayers, with the relief provided for in three categories. The categories allowed for payment of 50% of the outstanding debt and have the remaining amount written off or divide the 50% payment over three months.
The last option was to pay the full outstanding amount within six months with no interest.
Xaba said the present arrangement was a temporary ‘bonus’ and warned that no municipality would ever sustain such relief, urging residents to make use of it while it is still available.
“The City creates this programme in order to relieve over in-debted customers, particularly businesses to get back to profitability as this assists in boosting economic growth, however, in the long run it would collapse the City's financial system.
"As much as we want to assist customers, we have realised that it would be counter-productive in the long run because it discourages people from paying for services,” said Xaba.
The City Manager, Musa Mbhele, said people responded well when the programme was introduced in June last year.