Durban - Msunduzi Municipality’s new city manager, Lulamile Mapholoba, says he plans to take the KwaZulu-Natal capital to greater heights and ensure that it is granted metro status in the near future.
Mapholoba was formally introduced yesterday to the media and attended his first full council meeting in Pietermaritzburg.
Mapholoba, who boasts more than 20 years’ experience in local government, said he was aware of the challenge before him in improving the fortunes of the municipality, which is still under administration.
“There is no time to waste or to be on a learning curve, there is work to be done,” said the city manager.
He singled out revenue generation, improving the city’s ageing infrastructure and ensuring that the city was run in line with the prescripts of good governance as key issues to be dealt with.
He described himself as a firm believer in stakeholder management, expressing his confidence that he would work well with staff.
“My duty is to marshal my team towards the right direction and I am encouraged by the political will from the leadership to ensure that this is the best municipality in the province, if not the country,” said Mapholoba.
He expressed the belief that by the end of his contract, the municipality would have acquired metro status, and become the second city in KZN to enjoy such a status.
Mapholoba has been city manager in a number of municipalities, including Mandeni Municipality and the City of uMhlathuze, where under his leadership the municipality achieved two clean audits.
Msunduzi mayor Mzi Thebolla appealed for the city manager to be given a chance to do his job, and gave an assurance that there would be no political interference.
“Our appeal for people who voted us to lead this city last November is to give us a chance to do this and ensure that the city lives up to its billing as the KZN capital,” said Thebolla.
He added that the appointment of the city manager showed that the council wanted to have a properly run municipality.
“We have no doubt that Mapholoba’s appointment is a milestone that is not only going to restore the dignity of our municipality, but will stabilise the administration of the municipality. He is expected to help the leadership in bringing confidence to all our stakeholders, firstly by getting the municipality out of (administration),” Thebolla said.
The city has been under administration following a raft of governance challenges in 2019, prompting the intervention of the provincial government.
In recent weeks, the city embarked on a revenue-collecting campaign, disconnecting government offices and businesses that owed the municipality huge amounts of debt, and managed to collect more than R100 million within a week.
Meanwhile, the city manager got a sense of the challenges before him when some workers embarked on an unprotected strike, which disrupted municipal services including refuse removal and street sweeping.