Under-fire King Sabata Dalindyebo municipal bosses have admitted that 50% of the buildings in Mthatha were not compliant with health and safety regulations and standards. And despite several buildings going up in smoke under mysterious circumstances since 2021, the municipality has also admitted it does not have a bylaw on fire prevention.
Despite the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality boasting the third-largest economy in the Eastern Cape, it has been branded “currently financially and administratively dysfunctional”. The municipality also has a low population density and limited economic development and comprises about 90% traditionally rural areas.
The King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality, the third-largest economy in the Eastern Cape, might have failed to become a metro, but municipal bosses this week announced grand plans to further bolster the local authority’s economy. Giving an administrative overview of the municipality during the first day of KSD’s mega strategic planning session at the Savoy Hotel and Conference Centre in Mthatha on Monday, municipal manager Ngamela Pakade revealed ambitious plans to revive a railway line betwee.
Residents, ratepayers and businesspeople in Mthatha have been saying it for years, and in 2023, they even wrote a scathing letter to police minister Bheki Cele complaining about their town’s soaring crime rate. This week, however, King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality mayor Nyaniso Nelani, who has previously promised to run criminals out of Mthatha, has admitted that the town remains an unsafe place marred by murders, extortion, hijacked buildings and general lawlessness.