Durban — The eThekwini Municipality needs more than R60 million to adequately address the challenge of sanitation infrastructure at the Nazareth Baptist Church.
This was revealed by acting eThekwini Municipality mayor Nkosenhle Madlala when he briefed the media about the municipality’s support for the Shembe Church’s 2023 pilgrimage.
The mayors of eThekwini, Ilembe and Ndwedwe municipalities held a joint media briefing on the government’s state of readiness to support the pilgrimage to the holy mountain by thousands of Nazareth Baptist Church devotees.
Ilembe mayor Thobani Shandu, Ndwedwe mayor Mzamo Mfeka, eThekwini human settlements and infrastructure acting chairperson Thembo Ntuli, eThekwini city manager Musa Mbhele and Ndwedwe municipal manager D Khuzwayo were in attendance.
Madlala outlined the plans the three municipalities had put in place to support the Nazareth Baptist Church during their holy pilgrimage which started this week.
The pilgrims leave eThekwini and the devotees hold their gathering in the Khenana and Nhlangakazi holy mountains where they are hosted by the Ndwedwe Local Municipality and the Ilembe District Municipality.
Madlala said that their partnership with the Nazareth community went back many years.
“We recognise the central spiritual, cultural and leadership role they play in our communities. Over the years we have done our part to ensure that previous pilgrimages were successful, safe and incident-free,” he said.
Madlala said their support has been based on health and safety protocols and on assessment of the state of infrastructure on the ground.
He said that the support they were providing this year included:
- Four ambulances
- Five static tanks
- Eight waste skips will be placed along the route to the holy mountains
- 10 water tankers
- 100 waste collectors
- 200 mobile ablution facilities
- 20 000 waste plastic bags
- Mobile clinics to be provided by the provincial government
- Deployment of metro police for traffic control
Madlala said that last year, the city allocated R3 million for sanitation services and R1m for waste removal.
He said for the long term, “the city has recently approved R5.8m to refurbish communal ablution facilities in eBuhleni in the current financial year. However, for us to adequately address the challenge of sanitation infrastructure for the church, we will require funding of over R60m. Therefore, the allocation of R5.8m will be spent on basic refurbishment and the contractor has already established a site to carry out this work.”
He said that the interventions were made because of public health considerations given the large number of people that attend the holy pilgrimage.
Madlala said that in addition to the issue of hygiene, the Nazareth Baptist Church is the largest congregation in the Southern hemisphere with a membership of over 5 million: “The pilgrimage also draws thousands of devotees from all corners of the country into the city which gives us a great platform to promote the city as a preferred destination for tourism and investment.
“We want to assure the church and its devotees that as government we are committed to a long-term partnership,” he said.
“Since its founding in 1910, the church has played a key role in the liberation struggle. It has also been instrumental in advocating for the building of strong family structures and preservation of our cultural heritage. It is for this reason that as part of our effort to promote tourism in the city, we have established the Inanda Heritage Route which incorporates historical sites of Durban including the Shembe Church.”
Madlala said that on behalf of the people of eThekwini, they wished the congregants of the Nazareth Baptist Church a safe and peaceful pilgrimage.
Daily News