Dispute Drags on Over eThekwini Beachfront Beautification Project

A land battle between a beachfront property owner and the eThekwini municipality is heating up. The city is arguing that the landowner has deliberately stalled the renovation of his beachfront amusement park, which was to be beautified ahead of the World Cup. The new set of delays could push back a legal decision -- and any work -- until mid-May.

But Steyn said in the latest round of papers filed with the Durban High Court that this was "disingenuous and unconvincing", and asked why the council could not find space elsewhere for the traders.

"It seems it is intent on advancing, for its own commercial gain, the rights of other commercial entities to the detriment of the applicant.

"Surely the location of street traders is irrelevant to the success and future opportunities of the World Cup," he said.

The council, in its previous papers, disclosed that Steyn had complained about loss of income and asked for compensation of R1.5-million, which had been refused. Steyn insisted that his business had suffered during the upgrade, with telephone lines, water and electricity frequently cut off. He said three of the four entrances to his park were also closed off.

Beachfront battle turns ugly
The Mercury
April 22, 2010

Communist Party Calls for De-Privatization of Durban Bus System

Critics are calling on the City of Durban and the municipality of eThekwini to take over control of Durban's citywide bus system, which the city had privatized in 2003. The recent downfall of the city's bus operator, Remant Alton, and replacement by Transnat Africa Bus Company has spurred complaints about institutional inefficiencies from the South African Communist Party.

"What the city is doing is just shifting responsibility from one operator to another. The SACP therefore calls for the immediate takeover of the public transport operation. This is indeed feasible as it has been proven throughout the world and in other South African cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town that the only effective way to run a public transport system is if it is run by the municipality involved," said Themba Mthembu, the provincial secretary of the SACP.

The SACP has also called for a full investigation into the collapse of the bus system under Remant Alton, saying that this had cost taxpayers about half a billion rands in bailout funds to the operator.

Take the wheel, Durban, says SACP
Daily News
July 14, 2009

Homeless Children Won't Be Cleared From Streets During World Cup

While in the past, the international spotlight was typically proceeded by an effort to temporarily rid the streets of homeless youth, South African officials are saying that this will not be the case during the 2010 World Cup.

[eThekwini municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe] said the city faced the challenges of providing services to rich international visitors as demanded by the national government and soccer governing body Fifa, while continuing to serve poor and vulnerable residents.

..."We have to use the event to our advantage to advance our economic, social and sustainability agendas. It (the World Cup) has given the city the opportunity to ramp up its investment in public infrastructure and to bring it to the poorest of the poor by building more clinics and providing social facilities," Sutcliffe said.

However, he said, while street children were a "visible" social problem, the city had the challenge of caring for eight groups of vulnerable people including the "invisible" poor.

"We have 100 000 households in the city who have no income and they contain about 500 000 family members. And there are those households living off casual labour," Sutcliffe said.

Source:
Street kids 'won't disappear' for 2010
Independent Online
April 2, 2009

ANC Calls on eThekwini to Reclaim Public Transit System

The African National Congress is urging the eThekwini municipality to resume control over its public transport system after financial issues forced the private company that had taken it over to halt service two weeks ago.

The eThekwini Municipality’s bus service collapsed two weeks ago. The city announced the service had been suspended due to financial problems at Remant Alton, a private company which runs the city’s bus service.

Thousands of commuters were left stranded and there have been reports of commuters who worked until late at night having to sleep in public toilets because of lack of transport.

The municipality privatised the municipal fleet for R70 million in 2003 because the National Land Transport Transition Act stipulated that municipalities with transport authorities should not run buses.

Source:
ANC urges eThekwini to take back buses
Sapa
March 23, 2009