South African council caught using photo of Auckland to promote Durban

eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality used an image of Auckland to promote the South African city of Durban. Photo / Facebook

Snapped!

A South African council has been caught using images of Auckland, the City of Sails, to promote the city of Durban.

The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality took to Facebook and used a photo of Auckland's waterfront which features The Cloud.

The promotion links back to an official Durban government website.

Can you imagine browsing MTN website and you find Vodacom images. So EThekwini Municipality is not proud of our own...

Posted by Zwakele Ngqondo-Ngqondo Mncwango on Friday, 4 August 2017

EThekwini Municipality Executive Member Zwakele Ngqondo-Ngqondo Mncwango slammed the advertisement as an "embarrassment".

"You went to bed in Durban and you wake up in Auckland.

"Can you imagine browsing MTN website and you find Vodacom images. So EThekwini Municipality is not proud of our own images but prefer to use other cities. Only in eThekwini Municipality this will be allowed because no one cares about the crisis in the city‚" he said.

Mncwago told TimesLIVE he would be seeking action to get to the bottom of the bungle.

"This is shocking‚ an embarrassment to the city and residents of eThekwini. Someone must be held accountable for this. The DA will be writing to City Integrity [unit] and will request full investigation on this matter‚" he said.

Local opposition had a field day with the gaffe, with councillor Pete Graham saying: "I was going to say 'unbelievable'‚ but then realised that anything [is] possible under our new mayor."

Following Mncwagos complaint the image of Auckland was removed and changed to a picture of a Durban beach.