{"id":867618,"date":"2026-08-01T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=867618"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:03:47","slug":"major-municipality-ranks-itself-among-the-best-run-in-south-africa-without-a-clean-audit-in-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/867618\/major-municipality-ranks-itself-among-the-best-run-in-south-africa-without-a-clean-audit-in-a-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Major municipality ranks itself among the best-run in South Africa without a clean audit in a decade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The eThekwini Municipality is currently experiencing a decade-long breakdown in governance and finances, but its mayor still believes it’s one of the best-run in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the city’s main concerns is its infrastructure failure, which has led to environmental disasters throughout the municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This situation has severely affected key commercial and tourism areas in the Durban and KwaZulu-Natal regions, including the popular Wilson’s Wharf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite overseeing KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s largest budget, the municipality struggles with routine maintenance, weak financial controls, and delayed project execution, resulting in residents and businesses suffering from failing basic services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was highlighted in the Auditor-General’s 2024\/25 Local Government Audit Outcomes report, which indicated significant administrative failures within eThekwini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report highlighted that although eThekwini manages an annual expenditure budget of R71.02 billion, representing 57% of the total municipal budget for KwaZulu-Natal, it has not achieved a clean audit for over ten years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these challenges, Mayor Cyril Xaba recently said that eThekwini is among the best-run municipalities in the country. He highlighted the metro’s ability to pay its service providers and its overall financial health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201ceThekwini is among the best performing municipalities in the country, particularly when it comes to financial management,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m pleased to report that the independent ratings agency, GCR, has affirmed the municipality’s AA negative long-term investment credit rating and A1 positive short-term rating while revising the outlook from negative to stable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that the municipality has maintained a strong financial position and that experts are increasingly confident that its finances will remain stable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irregular municipal expenditure in KwaZulu-Natal rose to R7.80 billion in 2024\/25, with eThekwini accounting for R4.48 billion, or 57% of the provincial total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civic leaders attribute these issues to systemic failures in internal controls, expired contracts, and routine breaches of Supply Chain Management (SCM) protocols. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratepayers\u2019 associations have pointed out major deficiencies in basic financial management, including inadequate budgeting, poor revenue and cash-flow management, and substantial unaccounted losses of water and electricity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civic groups are expressing outrage that the city continually writes off irregular expenditures rather than taking swift disciplinary action against officials responsible for noncompliance and financial misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major infrastructure concerns<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although eThekwini successfully used 98% of its R7.5 billion infrastructure-related conditional grant in 2024\/25, the actual conditions on the ground reveal a failure in preventative maintenance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents in suburbs such as Overport, Trenance Park, and Shallcross face heavily potholed roads, unaddressed road repairs, and failing stormwater drainage systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular water disruptions, dry taps, and unaddressed leaks are common issues. The city has struggled to manage illegal dumping, landfill compliance, and escalating environmental risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Municipal wastewater treatment facilities are discharging non-compliant wastewater into local ecosystems, and raw sewage blockages flowing into streets, neighbourhoods, and rivers have become commonplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Severe delays in housing projects further highlight the municipality’s issues. The Etafuleni housing project, initially slated for completion in 2014, remains unfinished 12 years later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some beneficiaries have been forced to occupy incomplete structures without access to water or electricity, leading to illegal connections and creating critical health and safety hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The neglect of preventative maintenance culminated in a significant infrastructure failure at the Mahatma Gandhi Pump Station, one of the largest pump stations in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary pumps became heavily clogged, placing immense strain on the system. Repair delays meant that only one pump (Pump 1) was operational by 11 May, which was unable to meet the system’s demands, resulting in massive sewage overflows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timeline for repairs was extended due to the need to order replacement parts from Switzerland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To alleviate pressure on the malfunctioning sewer system, the city deployed water tankers and temporarily shut down the Ridge Road water infrastructure to ensure water safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact of the pump station breakdown has caused significant environmental and economic damage to Durban\u2019s coastal and commercial areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raw sewage overflowed directly into the harbour precinct, the Esplanade, and Wilson’s Wharf, creating a persistent and severe stench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This contamination led to the closure of several popular beaches, including North Beach, Battery Beach, and the Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 26 Councillor Sharmaine Sewshanker reported that local businesses and tourism operators at Wilson’s Wharf and along the beachfront are suffering greatly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sewage overflows have affected major hotels like the Onomo Hotel, and critics blame the municipality for neglecting sewer infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They highlighted the irony of spending R23 million on a statue while celebrating events like the Tourism Indaba, all at the expense of essential services for a clean harbour and beachfront.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This municipality is currently experiencing a decade-long breakdown in governance and finances, but its mayor still believes it’s one of the best-run in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":817769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2083523397523255736","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2163545824465817","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18101412607964994","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[7540,4289,19049,25935],"class_list":["post-867618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-durban","tag-ethekwini-municipality","tag-kwazulu-natal","tag-wilsons-wharf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867618"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":867757,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867618\/revisions\/867757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}