The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape will escalate their call for an urgent COGHSTA intervention into the Gamagara water crisis, to the National Minister of Cooperative Governance, Zweli Mkhize. So says the leader of the DA in the Northern Cape, Andrew Louw.
Mr Louw said that the DA is calling on the minister to urgently see to it that the water supply to the people of Gamagara is urgently restored and sustained. This comes as residents in Kathu and Olifantshoek have, since September last year, continued to experience severe water cuts, that, at times, stretched for over two weeks at a time.
The DA made similar requests to the COGHSTA MEC Bentley Vass, on three separate occasions last year. To date, provincial and local government continue to turn a blind eye to the issue of the outstanding debt of R14-million owed to Sedibeng, and in turn the water crisis in Gamagara is growing.
In effect, no one is assuming responsibility and accountability for the water crisis.
The failing ANC government is depriving the residents of their constitutional right to water. The people of Gamagara deserve so much better.
DA councillors have tried to promote the plan to get water from a Bestwood borehole, but the ANC provincial administration at the Department of Water Affairs refuses to lift the water licence restrictions.
The DA is now supporting residents of Gamagara who have started gathering signatures on a petition that they plan to hand over to the mayor of the municipality.
Unfortunately, however, given that not even last year’s volatile protests could spark the failing ANC government into action, the DA has little doubt that this call for help will not bear much fruit either.
In the short term, said Mr Louw, this municipality still desperately needs an independently appointed administrator to solve its dismal financial woes. The only long-term solution, however, is to vote the ANC government out of power, on all spheres of government.
The reality is that service delivery under the failing ANC government is at an all-time low. The ANC has been corrupted and politicians and officials are out to benefit themselves at the expense of residents. The rot has become so bad, that it is beyond them ever to self-correct as a party, said Mr Louw.
Only change under a DA-led government, which has proven itself to be efficient and effective in places where it does govern, can bring back service delivery and secure a clean and sustainable water supply to all the people of the Northern Cape and the country at large.
