Durban City Hall Durban City Hall. File Picture: Terry Haywood
Durban - ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal says it’s thrilled to learn of the suspension of one of the longest-serving officials in the eThekwini Municipality Supply Chain Management units due to alleged incompetency.
The eThekwini Municipality’s head of Supply Chain Management Andrew Petersen was suspended after failing to execute his duties diligently and “had failed to promptly approve tenders for goods and services, which has resulted in backlog and delays in rudimentary service delivery”.
“We believe that this action emanates from our initiation of our legal proceedings to hold the city to account for its failure to timeously act to repair water infrastructure which has resulted in myriad problems that now grip the beleaguered metro,” said ActionSA KZN chairperson Zwakele Mncwango.
Mncwango said the supply chain unit drives the procurement of goods and services, however, it has been revealed that Petersen was responsible for sewer pipes not being swiftly repaired.
He said as contracts to start all repairs were not issued, residential areas, rivers and beaches were polluted and people’s homes, rivers and beaches were overrun with untreated effluent.
“We hope that the municipality will not simply scapegoat Petersen and use this as an excuse for why repairs cannot be completed on time as promised.
“We appeal that the municipality comes clean about the issues it is facing, and the effect they have on the possible prolonging of infrastructure issues that have been allowed to continue for seven months.”