EFF promises ‘war on leaks’ and 20 young workers per eThekwini ward - IOL
EFF Mayoral candidate in eThekwini Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi.
EFF mayoral candidate for eThekwini Municipality, Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi, says the party will launch a “war on leaks” as its first step towards addressing the city’s water problems.
She said that, if elected to lead the city, the party would employ 20 young people in each ward to address water leaks in communities, with the intention of reducing water losses.
Mkhaliphi is a senior EFF member currently deployed to Parliament. She is also a member of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Mkhaliphi spoke to The Daily News about the party’s plans for eThekwini. She said the EFF had identified water shortages, incorrect billing, historic debt and deficiencies in the indigency policy as some of its top priorities.
She said the EFF planned to retain its seat and grow its support, adding that the party had been taken by surprise by the rise of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party but was confident that voters would support the EFF because it was a large and stable party.
“We have learnt that there are thousands of water leaks across the city. Communities in uMlazi, Phoenix and many other areas are facing water challenges. One of the main problems causing the water challenges is the fact that most of the water the city buys from Umgeni-Uthukela Water is lost through leaks and does not reach communities.”
Mkhaliphi said the EFF would hire 20 young people in each ward and partner with a TVET college to ensure they were trained as plumbers.
“These young people will lead the work on leaks in their wards. We do not want a situation where we hire a main contractor who then subcontracts the work to someone else,” she said.
She said another priority was addressing incorrect billing, which had caused hardship for many communities. Some residents were allegedly losing their homes because of incorrect bills.
Mkhaliphi said the billing system had been unfair to some residents, including people who had previously paid their accounts on time but later received steep bills after it was discovered that they had been incorrectly charged by the municipality.
“There are issues of incorrect billing, as well as historic debt that resulted from the municipality’s incorrect billing. We are saying there must be a way to deal with these issues, including cancelling the debt, because we cannot have a situation where consumers are held liable for the municipality’s mistakes,” she said, adding that the municipality’s indigent policy required significant changes.
“We are going to conduct a thorough audit of the indigency policy. For example, the policy assumes that if you live in a particular area, you can afford to pay. Someone may have been a principal who managed to buy a house in Westville but has since cashed out their pension, and that pension has run out. The policy does not check that,” she said.
Political analyst Professor Musa Xulu said the EFF could be impactful again in these elections.
He said the EFF had experienced a decline in its support base in KZN, based on the outcomes of the 2024 national and provincial elections. However, with excitement about the MKP slowing down, the EFF was likely to become impactful again, especially among young people.
“Mkhaliphi is a very robust politician, born and raised locally in Durban. She is likely to attract some votes in the formal and informal townships in the Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu (INK) cluster.
“She is well educated and is currently a PhD candidate. Her experience as an MP since 2014 will also strengthen her standing. However, I see the EFF playing more of a kingmaker role than leading the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. While the three leading parties — the MK Party, ANC and DA — are unlikely to work together, the IFP and the EFF provide the next layer of political power, without which no sustainable coalitions will be formed,” he said.
