Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite by Ald Cilliers Brink here
After a delay of three months, and what seems to be confusion on the part of Mayor Nasiphi Moya on water safety tests, the first phase of the Hammanskraal clean water project is finally ready.
I am proud of the part done by my own coalition government, especially former member of the mayoral committee Themba Fosi, in driving the project to delivery.
A lot of work still has to be done, and things can still be bungled. But my heart warms to think that Hammanskraal residents finally have proof that government can in fact get good things done.
The solution of having Magalies Water deliver purified water from the Pienaars River, instead of the polluted Apies River, was devised in 2023 in a partnership between national government and Tshwane.
It allows the Temba purification line to be shut while the City undertakes the upgrade of the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant.
Shortly after my election as mayor of Tshwane in 2023 I met then minister of water Senzo Mchunu in Cape Town at a sanitation workshop arranged by National Treasury.
We agreed to put aside difference between the City and the Department, and what followed was sterling work by officials of Magalies and the City of Tshwane to bring clean water into people’s taps.
The work done by Magalies Water and its contractors in designing and building the first phase of the Klipdrift modular purification plant has been impressive. Once the full plant is complete it will be the biggest of its kind in South Africa.
As each of the four phases of the Klipdrift Package Plant comes online, residents will no longer have to dependent on water tankers.
The sustainability of this solution depends on three factors, which the DA will be monitoring closely:
- As people get clean water in their taps, the City of Tshwane cannot continue to pay the invoices of water tanker operators in the affected area. ANC councillors have long been rumored to have interests in the water tinkering business, and Tshwane is now under the control of an ANC coalition.
- Extraordinary measures must be taken to protect water infrastructure in Hammanskraal from theft and vandalism. If the Klipdrift water supply is disrupted due to vandalised pumpstations and the like, then City will be forced to once again contract water tankers.
- Tshwane must pay Magalies Water for the supply of clean water to Hammanskraal households, and in order to do so, water consumption at every household must be metered. Beyond the basket of free basic services offered to the poor, consumers must be billed for water use.
Before our government was removed from office, hard work went into this project, including meter audits, rollout schedules, and agreements with the traditional authority in the area.
The delayed launch of the first phase of the Hammanskraal water project has been overshadowed by the news that the Rooiwal Five will be returning to work.
We once again call on the City of Tshwane to take this decision on review. This will send a strong message to city officials that there will be consequences for bad actions, even if the ANC is momentarily back in charge of the city.