Durban — ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal has commented on allegations that eThekwini Municipality mayor Mxolisi Kaunda enjoyed a holiday in Cape Town while leaving behind contaminated beaches at home.
ActionSA KZN chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said Kaunda allegedly enjoyed his festive season holiday at Cape Town beaches while making holidaymakers swim in E.coli-infested beaches in eThekwini.
“Mayor Kaunda must explain to eThekwini residents and businesses why he chose to enjoy the Cape Town coastline instead of dedicating his time and energy to dealing with the myriad problems on his own coastline that are directly attributable to his administration's dereliction of its duty to repair the city’s infrastructure that was damaged nine months ago,” Mncwango said.
He said that in an attempt to not scare the public into staying away from eThekwini during the past festive season, Kaunda openly misled the public into believing that E.coli levels were at an acceptable rate at Durban beaches, making them “safe” for public use, while he cooled off in Cape Town.
“Not only is this shocking, but it is also very telling and creates the impression that the eThekwini beaches remain contaminated by untreated effluent and are indeed not safe for beachgoers if the city’s own mayor chose to flee this coastline to enjoy another.
“This is hypocrisy at its finest. Mayor Kaunda risked the health and wellbeing of the public, in an attempt to not lose large amounts of capital flowing into the city during the festive season, while maintaining the façade that he cared for people’s health,” Mncwango charged.
ActionSA will not stop fighting for the people of eThekwini, while they await their trial date on February 27 against the City of eThekwini and other government entities, he said.
Meanwhile, last week Kaunda said that thousands of visitors came to the city as the accommodation occupancy rate reached 65%. This translates into 702 735 visitors with a direct spend of R1.5 billion, a more than R3.8 billion contribution to gross domestic product and 7 775 jobs.
He also gave a beaches status update, saying that during the festive season only 12 beaches were open for swimming.
“As a result of the progress we have made in repairing our pump stations along the coastline, we have now been able to open more beaches,” Kaunda said.
“We are pleased to announce that the following beaches are safe and open for swimming as per the recent water quality results: Point, Ushaka, Addington, South Beach, Wedge, North Beach, Bay of Plenty, Toti Main, Brighton, uMdloti Main, Umgababa, Umhlanga Main, Westbrook and Battery Beach.
“The beaches that are closed for swimming are Bronze, Country Club, Thekwini, Laguna, Reunion, Warner, Winkelspruit, Pipeline, Anstey’s and Casuarina,” Kaunda said.
Daily News