The Democratic Alliance (DA) eThekwini will be writing to the public protector to investigate the eThekwini municipality’s decision to spend R22m on statues whilst the city has uncontrollable water and sanitation crisis.
Whilst the DA recognises the importance of honouring and remembering this country’s history, the city management has an obligation to prioritise service delivery over vanity projects.
Not so long ago, the very same administration commissioned two statues of the Former President of the Country, Dr Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo at the City Hall at a cost of R22 million. Even at that time, the DA councillors insisted that the ANC needed to go back to basics with service delivery and cut all the frills and nice-to-have items from the budget and that call was ignored.
The R22 million spent on the Beachfront Statue is one typical wasteful expenditure under this municipality’s administration.
What is even more concerning is that the eThekwini Municipality redirected funds from purchasing fire engines and repairing the water infrastructure towards the building of this statue. The city council is also refusing to divulge the details of the artist and hiding behind a confidentiality clause in the tender.
The DA’s eThekwini Mayoral Candidate, Haniff Hoosen, is taking the Beachfront Statue as a matter of priority. We cannot sit back and watch corruption playing out when we still have sewer crisis that is flowing into our oceans. We need to fix what is broken and bring back tourists to our beautiful city.
The DA will fight for the residents of eThekwini as they deserve better.