Durban – In an unexpected opening address at the reopening of the People’s Park kiddies’ zone on Wednesday, eThekwini’s municipal manager Musa Mbhele spoke about the city being under a barrage of attacks.
Mbhele said the city accommodates tourists of different kinds, not only international tourists. That was what they (the metro) invested money in.
“There are signature events that we host and these events help us boost our tourism sector and create more jobs,” Mbhele said.
He said that the city was unfortunate to be hit by floods, but it was functional by April 13, 2022.
“Even though the infrastructure was still damaged, most people were still accommodated in community halls, but through efforts of ordinary men and women in the city, from rescue practitioners and people who work in the disaster management space to our metro police, we were all hard at work… Guided by progressive leadership. We did everything possible to ensure that the city becomes functional… It took us less than 72 hours to restore electricity, and the water supply,” Mbhele said.
“Obviously in six to seven months’ time, we couldn’t have brought the city back to where it was before, because the amount of damage was so huge. But it escapes my mind how all of a sudden we lack meritocracy, we are failing, we epitomise poor leadership both administratively and politically. We’ve let down the people of Durban, among other things.”
“But I'm saying wow, wow. If I’m a Durbanite and I go out and tell people don’t come to my city because the water is full of e-coli, the infrastructure is crumbling… Completely destroying opportunities for creating jobs in the city,” Mbhele said.
“We have been under a barrage of attacks on something that sounded like a very carefully planned attack,” he said.
Mbhele said that the city is hard at work… “Of course, it was functioning optimally… The mere fact that there is a children’s swimming pool that is not functional, the mere fact that there were high tide incidents. And there are voice notes going around saying do not come near the city of Durban, and what have you…
“Those incidents, unfortunately, all have come at almost the same time but it is as a result of us juggling with too many balls in the air and some of them got to be dropped,” Mbhele said.
“The city is functional, the city is ready to welcome visitors. We’ve worked hard.”
Mbhele said he did not want to compare Durban to other cities.
However, he called on people to “come and explore Durban, the most liveable, most caring city on the continent of Africa”.
“They (people) must not listen too much to what is being said. We would never risk the lives of our people. We love our people so much.
“When we say our beaches are ready, indeed they are ready. If there is a change, we will tell them that there has been a change but we are working hard upstream to fix infrastructure to ensure that we have a Durban that everybody knows,” Mbhele said.
Daily News