Ethekwini municipality has managed to save about R250 000 in postage costs since the consolidation of accounts last year.

eThekwini municipality has been identified by the education and training arm of the United Nations as a centre that is able to offer training to other local authorities.

eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba has unveiled a new programme which will help thousands of people to buy the council flats they have been renting for decades.

The race is expected to generate about R100-million for the eThekwini Metro and put the costal city on the international map.

The upgrading of the Western Freeway - one of South Africa's busiest stretches of road - is considered a vital infrastructure upgrade for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Construction of a R10-billion low-cost housing project in an affluent suburban area will begin early next year.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier S'bu Ndebele has launched a citizens' charter that commits all provincial public servants to delivering prompt service.

KwaZulu-Natal Local Government MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu yesterday announced a R1.1 billion bail out for weak municipalities to enable them to deliver basic services.

eThekwini Municipality has unveiled an ambitious plan to remove residents from over 50 unsafe and unhygienic informal settlements by the second half of this year, according to head of the eThekwini Housing Department, Couglan Pather.

A forensic audit has exposed corruption and financial mismanagement in over 30 municipalities in KwaZulu Natal.

eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba sounded a warning to the city's arrears defaulters, saying the increase in outstanding debt is reaching alarming proportions. Presenting the municipality's budget in Durban, Mlaba said the budget has grown to R10,849 billion, comprising a R2,293 billion capital spending and R8,556 billion operating expenditure.

A call for South Africa's embattled municipalities to be run like "smart businesses" to allow them to effectively deliver on their mandate was made by eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba at the third International Mayoral Conference held in Durban recently.

Poor people in eThekwini Municipality were given a major financial break when the municipality agreed to write off close to R200 million in arrears.

eThekwini Municipality is making good progress in delivering free basic water and electricity to communities in a programme that is targeted at the poorest of the poor in the city, mayor Obed Mlaba said in his state of the city address.

Municipalities are struggling to deal with the transport crisis facing SA cites. To meet this challenge, eThekwini has set up South Africa's first Transport Authority (TA).

Housing Minister Brigitte Mabandla officially handed over 1,216 homes to families living at Welbedacht, previously a slum, as part of the government's project to clear the eThekwini Municipality of all slums as envisaged in the urban renewal strategy.

EThekwini Municipality is to rename major streets and freeways to reflect the city's history and to honour struggle heroes and heroines.

The eThekwini Municipality is consolidating its status as a premier conference centre in SA, with an announcement yesterday that it is going to inject R400m to expand the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC), it was reported in Busines Day.

Townships in Durban are set to benefit from the estimated R9-billion eThekwini Municipality budget to be tabled this week, with the exco having already approved R24,2 million to go towards a housing project in the sprawling townships of KwaMashu and Newlands, north of Durban.

The city that prides itself in being Africa's conference mecca, is spending R404-million over the next two years into upgrading its ailing road infrastructure.

A delegation from the City of eThekwini is in Johannesburg to learn about managing a city in a rapidly changing environment. Sipho Cele, the deputy manager of the eThekwini council and also head of the delegation, said they are here to learn how the city had reorganised its administrative structures.