eThekwini mayoral candidates are promising faster municipal approvals and improved support for businesses ahead of the local government elections.
eThekwini’s mayoral candidates are promising faster municipal approvals, digital application tracking and tougher accountability for officials as they seek to make the city more business-friendly ahead of Wednesday’s local government elections.
The overarching consensus points to a critical shift: enforcing official accountability and transforming municipal administration into an efficient, business-friendly engine for local economic growth and job creation.
ActionSA eThekwini mayoral candidate Zwakele Mncwango said entrepreneurs and investors should not have to wait unnecessarily for building plans, business licences, development applications and other municipal approvals.
“My administration will introduce measurable service delivery standards and turnaround times for municipal approvals, supported by a digital application tracking system,” Mncwango explained.
“We will establish a dedicated business facilitation unit to assist investors and businesses in navigating municipal processes, with particular attention to small businesses and township enterprises.”
Mncwango added that municipal officials and department heads will be held accountable for unreasonable delays. Moreover, performance agreements must include measurable targets for processing applications and responding to investors.
DA eThekwini mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen said they want to implement a tiered service level system in the city.
For instance, he said large corporations that provide mass employment and pay high rates should have dedicated municipal officials to support requests.
“If we run the city like a business and treat our residents like valued customers, it will go a long way towards building confidence in the city’s administration,” Hoosen said.
“Currently, the levels of service received from city officials are poor, and far too many businesses and residents complain about the poor levels of service. We must turn this around and implement a more accountable level of service support to our residents and businesses. The city spends R14 billion on staff salaries annually, but residents don’t receive value for this money.”
EFF eThekwini mayoral candidate Hlengiwe Mkhaliphi said the party will cut red tape by introducing clear service-level agreements, strict approval deadlines and a one-stop municipal business support system.
“We will digitise applications, eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles, and hold officials accountable for delays,” Mkhaliphi said.
“Our commitment is to make eThekwini a municipality that facilitates business, supports SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises) and township enterprises, and creates jobs instead of frustrating economic activity.”
IFP eThekwini mayoral candidate Mkhuleko Hlengwa said his administration would prioritise reviewing municipal processes that affect businesses, including trading permits, business licences where municipal processes apply, land-use applications, building-plan approvals, and other relevant development permissions.
He explained that the first step would be mapping out the processes. They need to identify unnecessary steps, duplicated documentation, departments where applications pile up, and decisions delayed without adequate explanation.
Thereafter, they would introduce clear service standards for the principal business-facing processes. Each process should have a published target turnaround time, a designated official responsible for its progress and an escalation procedure for applications that exceed the prescribed period, he said. These service standards should be supported by internal service-level agreements between departments.
Hlengwa said he would also prioritise a more integrated business-support service, supported by digital application tracking.
“We would publish performance information showing application volumes, average processing times, backlogs and compliance with service standards. This would help identify bottlenecks and make officials accountable for improvements,” Hlengwa said.
“Importantly, faster approvals must not mean bypassing building regulations, environmental requirements, safety standards or lawful public participation. The objective is to remove unnecessary bureaucracy while preserving proper oversight.”
Hlengwa also said that they would review by-laws and administrative requirements that unnecessarily obstruct legitimate economic activity, while retaining the rules needed to protect residents and maintain orderly development.
MK Party representative Professor Thamsanqa Mkhize said businesses should not have to navigate unnecessarily complicated approval processes, repeated document submissions or prolonged administrative delays when seeking to establish or expand operations.
“I would prioritise a municipal business facilitation programme built around measurable service standards and clearly assigned administrative responsibilities,” Mkhize said.
He said proposed interventions would include a centralised business facilitation office, published service-level agreements, digitisation of municipal processes and accountability for administrative delays.
The ANC had not responded to questions by the time of publication.