About 102 CCTV cameras will be installed in and around Mthatha, including at taxi ranks, to help fight rampant crime and illegal dumping.
This was revealed by King Sabata Dalindyebo local municipality mayor Nyaniso Nelani at an open council meeting held at a community hall in Bhongweni village in the Eastern Cape town on Thursday.
Nelani used the occasion to table a report highlighting progress and challenges in service delivery since his administration took office after the 2021 local government elections.
He said the installation of the cameras was one of the programmes in the pipeline.
“We will put them in Mthatha because of crime. We have a partnership with Microsoft.”
Details of the partnership would be revealed “in due course”, the mayor said.
“We have identified hotspots where they will be installed. An assessment was done by experts ... hence the number of cameras.”
He said the recent burning and vandalism of electricity infrastructure in Mthatha was negatively affecting the municipality’s cash flow because more than R25m had to be spent on replacing damaged kiosks and transformers since late last year.
Nelani said Illegal dumping was not only eating away at the local authority’s financial resources but was also adversely contributing to climate change within the KSD municipal area.
The mayor said his administration, which had taken over an institution fraught with challenges, had identified infrastructure development and economic investment, service delivery and institutional development as the four main pillars to build on.
Since 2021, more than R301m had been spent on building new access roads and re-gravelling existing ones.
At least 17 new bridges connecting rural communities to urban centres within KSD had been constructed in the past three years.
“We have re-gravelled about 1,297km of access roads, while [about] 3,978 potholes have been repaired across the municipality through the pothole patching programme.
“More than 40.5km of surfaced roads have been upgraded in Mqanduli, Norwood, Callaway and Eagle streets, King Edward Road and Elliot Street.
“An amount of R24m has also been spent on constructing sidewalks in Mthatha and Mqanduli.”
The municipality had spent more than R18m on building community halls and R2.2m on ablution facilities at the Mqanduli and Northcrest taxi ranks, the Munitata building and Mthatha Town Hall.
A total of R22m was spent on sprucing up the Rotary Stadium in Ngangelizwe township, including fixing stormwater drains, erecting proper fencing, water reticulation and upgrading the soccer pitch and athletics track.
More than R13m was spent on erecting high mast lights across KSD and R55m on electrification of RDP homes in several residential areas.
In addition, 498 new homes were handed over to their owners.
Nelani said the municipality had also supported 12 retail spaza shops in 2023 and an additional 12 had been earmarked for start-up support stock this financial year.
“Over the past three years, KSD has garnered the spotlight of media attention. Compared to previous years, there have been [just] a few negative reports which were outnumbered by quite a number of positive reports.
“This is down to the positive work done by the council.”
To lessen the effects of illegal dumping and climate change, the municipality had launched a “cleanest and greenest ward” competition to inspire communities to keep their areas clean.
A development strategy to address climate change was in the works.
But Nelani also said there were 42 buildings in Mthatha in a state of disrepair, most of which belonged to the government.
“These buildings are owned by government, but our own government is a culprit in making our town dirty.”
He said the municipality had been informed that it was about to receive its third successive unqualified audit opinion from the auditor-general — a barometer of clean governance and sound management of public funds.
But it had also been forced to write off more than R97m in unauthorised expenditure, over R1bn in irregular expenditure and more than R30m in fruitless expenditure in the past three years.
It had, however, cleared its historic Eskom debt of R165m.
“We are committed to making an impact to improve the lives of our people,” Nelani said.
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