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Informative Trust High 80% #ethekwini #durban #homelessness #tourism #statues #nelson-mandela #oliver-tambo #service-delivery #south-africa

Mayor Taba defends statue costs, outlines homeless shelter plan for eThekwini

Podcast Briefing 2:45

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Key Strategic Points

  1. 1 Two statues of President Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo will be unveiled by President Ramaphosa on 6 March at the site where Mandela delivered his pivotal speech on 25 February 1990 calling for an end to violence.
  2. 2 The Durban statues, weighing 8 tons and built in China in 2021–2022, are comparable in size and material to the Mandela statue at the Union Buildings in Pretoria built in 2013, with cost differences attributable to exchange rates and inflation.
  3. 3 Mayor Taba argues the statue investment supports tourism, noting Durban ranked number 14 globally as a best tourist destination for 2026 and attracted R50 billion in investment last year, primarily in tourism.
  4. 4 The eThekwini municipality is constructing a 1,200-unit shelter facility called Saki Timber Build Hope to address homelessness, though the mayor acknowledged this represents only a fraction of the city's 16,000 homeless people.
  5. 5 Taba outlined a multi-pronged homeless reintegration strategy involving family counselling, church and clergy support, and engagement with diplomatic missions for foreign nationals, rather than relying on law enforcement alone.
  6. 6 The mayor stated the city is actively assisting homeless individuals willing to return home by facilitating contact with parents and relatives, and is engaging with Tanzanian and other diplomatic missions for repatriation of foreign nationals.

Notable Quotes

“The economy of the city is going to grow if we invest in tourism products. Unless we start to increase our offerings to the public, when a tourist is in the city they must spend the money in the city and extend their stay.”

— Sirill Taba, Mayor of eThekwini

“We have over 16,000 homeless people in the city. This 1,200 unit facility is just a drop in the ocean. We can only win this battle by persuading them to willingly go back home, but you can only achieve that if you address the environment that produced them.”

— Sirill Taba, Mayor of eThekwini

“Law enforcement alone is not going to assist because what happens is you drive them out and they disappear into the neighbourhood and then re-emerge two days later and occupy the other side of the road.”

— Sirill Taba, Mayor of eThekwini

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