The Democratic Alliance (DA) has today, during a press conference, announced several steps we will take to ensure accountability and most importantly, bring relief to Gauteng residents as their taps remain dry.
These DA-led interventions reach from national government, to local government, where we will also be lodging legal action.
In Johannesburg, the DA is heading to court.
Johannesburg has an existing water action plan in place, one, adopted by council, with inputs from the DA, amongst others. This plan gathers dust, as Morero fails to act. No implementation, no funding, and no political will to solve Johannesburg’s water woes.
That is what our court action will force them to act on.
This trend is one that exists across all spheres of government, where an abject dereliction of constitutional duty is taking place.
In Tshwane, the most worrying trend holding back water supply and enabling water loss is the insistence of government to focus on water procurement via water tankers, and not via people’s taps. The City of Tshwane must ring-fence water revenues and use this money for the upgrade of water infrastructure. Tshwane must also get in private sector partners either as management partners or to plug government’s lack of skills and capital. The DA will ensure this in council.
Ekurhuleni faces similar challenges where areas like Tembisa, parts of Germiston and Benoni have been without water for prolonged periods. Their municipality like others, have been crippled by water tanker mafias as we see a growth in their usage across the board.
Smaller municipalities are some of the worst hit. Places like Merafong and Emfuleni simply cannot afford to absorb the costs of water losses, or the outrageous asks of the Water Tanker Mafia.
Nationally, we have written to the Minister of Water and Sanitation. There must be engagement between her department and Rand Water – Rand Water’s license must be relaxed, so that they are able to pump more water into the system.
People cannot continue to live this way.
Residents deserve water in their taps, and let’s be very clear – this crisis is not the fault of residents. It is the fault of failing government.
As residents head to the streets to march for their constitutional rights, this is the ANC’s failure to own. The DA will not stop the fight. Today, we fight for water in Gauteng’s taps, and tomorrow we continue our fight to ensure that come election day, the ANC and their coalition partners who are responsible for this crisis are booted from their comfortable offices.