The eThekwini Municipality stated that five contracts related to domestic refuse collection, street cleaning, and litter-picking services within eThekwini were on a month-to-month basis for six months until December 31, 2026.
Image: File
eThekwini councillor Norman Gilbert says the council is being held to ransom by the “chronic and systemic planning failures” of supply chain management (SCM) processes.
Gilbert was speaking at a council meeting on Monday while amendments to several contracts related to domestic refuse collection, street cleaning, and litter-picking services within eThekwini were being noted.
The five contracts will now run month-to-month for up to six months, from July 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026, pending the finalisation, award and implementation of the replacement contracts currently under procurement.
Gilbert, the DA councillor for Ward 64, said the amendments came with staggering financial escalations.
A report before council stated the municipality is constitutionally mandated to ensure the efficient, sustainable, and equitable delivery of waste management services, safeguard public health, prevent environmental degradation, and promote a clean and safe living environment for all communities within its jurisdiction.
To supplement its internal resources and enhance service delivery, the municipality engages contractors to provide waste management services.
The municipality explained that prior to the submission of the tender specifications, a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) house-count exercise was undertaken to ensure full coverage of all areas within the contract jurisdictions and to facilitate effective service delivery.
The municipality stated that it intended to appoint nine contractors under the replacement contracts. The tender advertisement, which closed on February 20, 2026, attracted a total of five hundred and 57 submissions. The municipality stated that the evaluation process has been completed, and the evaluation report is currently being finalised for submission to the Bid Evaluation Committee.
Gilbert said: “We are looking at additional budget authorities ranging from 35% to nearly 40% for most of these contracts, and an absolutely unacceptable 69.89% increase— amounting to over R30.3 million for one contract."
He said the report shows that the original 15% contingencies for the contracts were drained prematurely.
“The waste management directorate depleted these safety buffers to fund public employment initiative personnel and to cover un-appointed community residential units like Klaarwater and KwaDabeka because the municipality failed to put proper service providers in place for those areas,” he added.
Gilbert was concerned that the nine replacement tenders were advertised in December 2025 and closed on 20 February 2026, which he described as a glaring administrative failure.
According to him, the SCM is sitting with a massive backlog of 557 tender submissions that still need to be evaluated.
“We are forced to support this extension today solely because the alternative is a catastrophic collapse of basic service delivery. If we do not approve this, refuse collection across over 60 wards will immediately halt on 1 July 2026. That would trigger an unprecedented illegal dumping crisis. Ratepayers can no longer afford to foot the bill for management’s inability to do its job on time,” Gilbert stated.
Patrick Pillay, leader of the Democratic Liberal Congress in eThekwini, said municipal Section 116 (3) is literally used to cover up the inefficiencies with contract management by officials.
“The Auditor-General has raised serious concerns on the abuse of Section 116(3) in the annual reports. Due to the nature of the services that will be affected, officials are literally pushing the hand of Councillors to pass these extended contracts. The city manager must deal with the officials who have not done their job properly and placed this council in this awkward predicament,” Pillay said.