eThekwini Municipality city manager Musa Mbhele was concerned about business emigration when he outlined the steps the city is taking to be inclusive and address climate change. 

Mbhele was represented by Professor Mpilo Ngubane, the Chief Learning Officer of the eThekwini Municipal Academy at the International Inclusive Cities Conference on Wednesday. 

The South-Durban basin was severely flooded after torrential rainfalls leading to damages of business premises and several companies had sought compensation from the municipality by turning to the courts. 

Mbhele said that the municipality was working hard to rebuild the infrastructure and to implement the Durban south basin disaster risk reduction project.

“We need to restore investors’ confidence and reposition ourselves as a city that is commercially and financially viable, with sound financial management,” Mbhele said. 

The conference was hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal with the 2025 theme, Resilient Cities and Communities: Adapting to Climate Change and Beyond. The discussion was about climate change, which is posing significant and complex challenges to cities and communities worldwide, with rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and resource scarcity increasingly threatening infrastructure, economies, and the well-being of urban populations.            

Discussions were about the need for resilient cities and communities, those capable of withstanding, adapting to, and recovering from these shocks and stresses.

The conference provided a global platform to share knowledge, innovative solutions, and good practices on urban resilience, which addresses the urgent need for cities and communities to adapt to climate change impacts and support inclusive and sustainable development for future generations.

In a presentation compiled by Mbhele, he stated that the World Bank defines an inclusive city by: 

• spatial inclusion-affordable necessities such as housing, water, and sanitation, as well as necessary infrastructure.
• social inclusion, including the most marginalised. 
• economic inclusion: creating jobs and growing the economy. 

Mbhele outlined the eThekwini long-term development plan and eThekwini district development model plan, saying that that the municipality inherited apartheid and colonial spatial planning, which is the root cause of many challenges that cities face.

“While cities are battling with high levels of poverty, we also face challenges of low investment, decline in economic growth, and fiscal constraints. We cannot ignore growing trends of political instability in most of our big metros. These can be very disruptive to our progress and service delivery,” Mbhele stated. 

He also outlined that eThekwini is still dealing with the impacts of the 2017, 2019 and 2022 floods. 

“Since 2017, the city has not been able to fully recover and rebuild back better. There is always a rush to restore our services and rebuild our infrastructure. Full recovery and rehabilitation require time, especially if your goals are sustainability and resilience. The development of new infrastructure, as well as the maintenance of the existing infrastructure, is repeatedly compromised during these times,” he said.

The municipality is using technology and data to promote inclusivity. The municipality is improving the integration of community collected data into municipal decision making which is particularly important in spaces that are vulnerable, including informal settlements.

Work has been done by the human settlements unit to try to work with Community Based Organisations who are already collecting detailed informal settlements data so that this can inform upgrading priorities and design elements. 

Mbhele said that the municipality has launched the strategic hub “single source of truth” with relevant data about the city, including ward profiles, economic data, safety, disaster vulnerability and a liveability index. 

“Quarry Road informal settlement is the only informal settlement with a localised disaster response plan. The plan was co-developed with the community, using GPS Coordinate machines to generate their risk profile. Thanks to capacity building and research led by the UKZN in the Palmiet Rehabilitation Project. Therefore we must highlight the importance of a shared-governance approach in the creation of solutions by communities for community benefit,” Mbhele said. 

The municipality stated that they have partnered with multi government stakeholders and NGOs in the informal settlement upgrade program to improve the living environment. .

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

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