The eThekwini Municipality is proposing a new Inner-City Municipal Entity to boost service delivery, support tourism, drive investment, and improve the overall management of the CBD.

The municipality is sifting through a feasibility study to establish an Inner-City Development Company to address the flight of economic activity from the Durban CBD.

The municipality has also called on the public to comment on the proposal, encouraging residents to “Have your say on the Future of Durban’s Inner City!”

External support was obtained to undertake a study, to conduct assessments and provide recommendations for appropriate institutional arrangements for the inner city following a council resolution in April 2023. 

An organ of state, the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC), under the leadership of the National Treasury, was appointed in March 2024. 

Following work undertaken in 2024 and 2025, the municipality has proposed the establishment of an Inner-City Development Company mandated to operate as a development agency, developer and manager of Inner-City properties and catalytic projects. 

According to the municipality, the operational boundary covers wards 26, 27 and 28. According to the municipal information statement, the findings from diagnostic studies indicate that the Durban Inner-City is facing:

• Crime and grime and inconsistent basic service delivery. 
• Inconsistent and uneven maintenance of key infrastructure. 
• Poor urban management. 
• Homelessness and related social challenges. 

“Property owners, tenants, and business operations, informal and formal, add pressure to a fragile inner city and lack in taking necessary responsibilities associated with operating in the inner city,” the statement read.

The municipality found that these problems have contributed towards a flight of economic activity from the inner city through the loss of investor confidence and with better and more modern locations outside of the inner city, serving as attractions for the relocation of existing investments as well as the attraction of new investments.

The findings from a diagnostic also indicate challenges that relate to internal municipal capacity, including insufficient resources to manage the inner-city strategy.

“While entities such as Inner-City Area Based Management (ITRUMP) and the Inner-City Office exist, they lack adequate authority, staffing, and coordination mechanisms. Line departments are equally stretched for resources and appropriate management strategies and are in urgent need to improve their resources and operations for the inner city,” the statement added. 

Any institutional mechanism must be able to address several interrelated issues and needs, including:

• Improved and enhanced service delivery, program implementation, and strategic planning. 
• Improved coordination and allocation of responsibilities, as well as enhanced accountability. 
• Ensuring insulation from institutional and political instability. 
• Facilitating public-private-civil society collaboration. 
• Transacting and leveraging city-owned properties and catalytic projects to attract private investment. 
• Improved resource mobilisation and allocation. 

Saul Basckin, ActionSA councillor in eThekwini Municipality, stated that the proposal is being presented as a solution, but in reality, he felt that it represented a rebranding failure rather than fixing the root causes of Durban’s decline.

Basckin stated that one of the reasons among many for Durban’s inner city deterioration was not because of a lack of entities but a complete absence of consequence management.

“The municipality already funds multiple departments and entities tasked with these exact responsibilities, including Durban Tourism, Economic Development, Metro Police, Real Estate, Parks, and Cleansing. Residents are paying for these structures every year — yet basic services continue to fail,” he said. 

According to Basckin, instead of holding officials accountable for non-performance, the city now proposes:

• Another municipal company. 
• Another board and executive structure. 
• Additional administrative and operational costs. 
• And further strain on already overstretched public finances. 

“Durban does not need another entity. It needs leadership that enforces the law, fixes what exists, and holds officials accountable for failure.

“True inner-city regeneration will only be achieved through competent governance, proper oversight, and a return to basics — not through creating new structures to mask old failures,” said Basckin.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

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