eThekwini Municipal officials and law enforcement officers inspected problem buildings in the Durban inner city to get landlords to refurbish them.
Image: Sibonelo Ngcobo
ActionSA in the eThekwini Municipality said management should be accountable for non-performance and move from reporting risk to fixing it.
Saul Basckin, ActionSA councillor in eThekwini, remarked at a council meeting during the presentation of a report on the Mid-Term Strategic Risk Profile and the implementation progress of risk mitigation plans for the 2025-2026 financial year.
This forms part of the annual process and forward-looking measures to address gaps and optimise the achievement of set targets. The municipality also conducts detailed research and gathers information on the external risk environment affecting it, including global risk trends.
Concerning economic growth and investment, the city continues to improve infrastructure and address safety and security challenges to enable and attract solid investment to boost its economy. The municipality reported that the Problem Buildings Division continues to address derelict buildings in the CBD to change the outlook of those buildings.
“These efforts and initiatives have become imperative in reinstating the city stakeholders confidence and attracting investment,” a report to council stated.
One of the initiatives implemented by the city is the Economic Development Incentive Policy, which offers rebates and incentives to attract and retain investment. Through the policy, more than R18 billion in private investment has been unlocked by means of rate rebates.
Collaborations between the government and the private sector are also a priority for the city to improve its tourism stance and boost its economy. The municipality stated that safety and security risks remain complex, and hotspot areas still report high crime statistics.
The municipality added that in recent months, an escalation in the number of hijackings of municipality vehicles was noted, and the requests coming from the service delivery units required security to accompany the crews attending to faults in certain areas.
"These risks are escalating, particularly concerning the ability to protect employees as they perform their jobs and daily activities in the field while providing service delivery. This ultimately drains the city's resources both in terms of security personnel and the financial resources needed to continue ensuring employee safety to perform their duties,” the municipal report stated.
Basckin said the reality is these risks are not new and have already been identified before, and many of them are no longer risks but have already materialised.
“Are we managing risk, or are we simply recording ongoing failure? Same risks, same problems,” he said.
Basckin said the municipality was dealing with financial risks linked to poor revenue collection and cash shortages, irregular and wasteful expenditure, as well as operational risks from failing systems and infrastructure. Also, governance risks from unresolved audit findings.
“These are not theoretical risks; these are real, current problems affecting residents daily.
“A strategic risk profile means nothing if there is no implementation, no urgency in fixing issues and no accountability for non-performance. We cannot continue updating risk profiles while the same risks remain unresolved for months and years,” he added.
“Until this municipality moves from reporting risk to fixing risk, we will continue to see the same failures repeated. We don’t need better reports, we need better execution,” he said.
The risk reviews also focused on infrastructure development and service delivery; good governance and organisational culture; procurement excellence and financial sustainability; economic growth and investment; safety and security; economic growth and investment; cyber and IT information security; business continuity and resilience; environmental, health and social inclusion; fraud, theft and corruption; climate change and disaster response, and lastly political environment risks.