The eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda denies going to Cape Town for a holiday in December while his city was dealing with sewage spillages that saw closure of some of the Durban beaches.

NEWSPAPER REPORTS

Kaunda has described a SundayTimes newspaper report that he went on holiday in Cape Town while the City was dealing with sewer spillages as malicious and aimed at damaging his character. "While I respect media freedom and journalistic creativity designed for interesting reading, I vehemently object to deliberately misleading the public in the name of satire. This is tantamount to abuse of power by the media as they influence public discourse," Kaunda said. The Sunday paper reported that "Kaunda went on holiday without a care in the world in Cape Town." Kaunda added that although the Mother City is blessed with natural beauty like most of the country, he never set foot in Cape Town during the festive season as claimed.

SEWAGE SPILLS

Kaunda is demanding a public retraction and a correction. The mayor added that he was taking the allegations seriously and is demanding a retraction to all those who have peddled lies including Action SA leader in KZN Zwakele Mncwango. He added that that satire cannot be used to mask deliberate peddling of lies and spreading of misinformation. The water waste spillages in Durban were first reported in 2021 with the city saying they were caused by dysfunctional pump stations. The city's wastewater works' senior engineer, Lusapho Tshangela told the media two years ago that the constant failure at the pump stations was due to loadshedding. The sewage into the sea and the beach resulted in the closure of six Durban beaches in December after high levels of E. coli were found in the water.