DA in eThekwini’s 2011 Municipal Demarcation Counter Proposals (PDF)
UPDATE: This work was featured in the Sunday Tribune 24 January 2010. See the article reproduced below.
The Democratic Alliance presented 53 counter proposals for the 103 proposed ward demarcation changes to the eThekwini Municipal Manager on Friday 15 January.
An example of our proposals: Comparison of Demarcation Proposals for Central Durban from MDB and DA.
Having analysed the proposals in detail over the past month, we are firmly of the belief that the determination of ward boundaries has been more than generous to the ruling party since the original 2000 demarcations. During the last 16 years the demarcation process has split communities, produced oddly shaped wards and traversed physical boundaries that separate communities.
In line with the Municipal Demarcation Board’s legal mandate to “avoid as far as possible the fragmentation of communities”, our proposals seek to reverse the fragmentation caused by the previous changes and the current proposals.
Service delivery at local government level is the major complaint of South African citizens. The time has come for Government to live up to its promises, and optimising service delivery at a ward level is an important basic intervention we can make now.
The DA has thus proposed that the following fragmented communities (split across multiple wards) are once again represented by a single ward councillor: Chesterville, Westville, Clermont, Pinetown, Kwandengezi, Amanzimtoti, Isipingo, Umlazi (Q), Glenwood, Cato Manor, Overport, Bayview, Newlands East, Newlands West, Durban North, Umhlanga and Verulam.
Further proposals have been submitted which, apart from unifying fragmented communities, have tried to honour natural boundaries, avoid road major divisions and compact ward boundaries. We have also endeavoured to separate the rural and urban elements of wards, as their service delivery requirements differ substantially.
The Municipal Manager, having received and acknowledged our counter-proposals, will be required to inform the MDB that there is no general consensus on the proposals within the Municipality and thus request that the MDB run a workshop in eThekwini later this year. The provisional date for the workshop is May 2010, however the DA will attempt to engage in bilateral or multilateral consultation with the ANC and other parties in order to reach general consensus before the workshop deadline.
Anyone wishing to find out more information about this process or the DA’s proposals should contact:
Cllr Warwick Chapman on 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org
Cllr Geoff Pullan 083 695 9190 | geoffpullan@iafrica.com
Download the PDF document containing all of the proposals:
2011-da-wdc-counter-proposals.pdf
Sunday Tribune, 24 January 2010
