As the sun set on Friday, 11 February, the third day of the Umdoni Municipality's strategic planning workshop, the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Speaker, Councillors, senior managers from Umdoni, UGU District and the MILE facilitation team were exhausted.

They had spent three days strategising on how to build upon the platform laid by the leadership team at Umdoni to position that municipality as the jewel of the KZN South Coast. Having debated the strategic challenges that faced the new Council, and fleshed out detailed strategies on how to address these, by the third day it was overwhelming to see all the participants from different political parties sign the "Salt Rock Accord" which commits the officials to key deliverables over the next term.

The workshop run by MILE as part of its Municipal Technical Support programme was well received by all participants, further testimony towards  positioning eThekwini as a learning City.