Johannesburg - The ANC caucus in Ekurhuleni has taken a stand on addressing basic service delivery performance and the disruption of water and electricity supply.
Parts such as Tsakane, Duduza, KwaThema, Daveyton, Twatwa, and more had not had a water supply for weeks or two months, while some areas had no electricity for weeks.
The City blamed service provider Rand Water for failing to supply adequate water.
The caucus convened a press briefing yesterday as part of its continuous effort to communicate its perspective on various matters of service delivery and governance.
The caucus constitutes the largest total number of seats in Council, where 78 of the 112 wards are under the ANC, translating to 70% of the wards.
The caucus said the extent of its representation in council necessitates that it takes a keen interest in how the City is advancing the local government mandate and other developmental imperatives.
On the service delivery, water, and electricity challenge, ANC Chief Whip in Ekurhuleni Jongizizwe Dlabathi said it is their standing commitment that basic services must be provided in a sustainable manner and with minimal interruptions.
“We have noted with concern the fact that in the past couple of months and recent weeks there have been serious instances of interruptions, particularly in the supply of water and electricity,” Dlabathi said.
He said leaks in sewers are also an area of worry, given the serious health risk that is posed by unattended sewer spillages.
“We are, of course, not oblivious to the fact that there are a number of factors at play. However, we have since noted a trend of inefficient responses to water, electricity, and sewer queries,” he said.
He added: “Internally, we need to urgently attend to the strengthening of human capacity, in particular electricity and water technicians.”
In addition, Dlabathi said the City needs to ensure the availability of key materials that are required to fix basic queries that are related to water, sanitation, and electricity.
He said the building of internal capacity must help it reduce the risk of what appears to be a significant reliance on external service providers for the basic repairs and maintenance that must normally be done internally.
“We express our deep disappointment about what happened in Tsakane, Kwa-Thema, and Daveyton/Etwatwa, where residents were subjected to an unfortunate long period of not having water. Such is undesirable, and it requires a strong collaboration between the City and Rand Water so that we can prevent similar future occurrences. Poor communication and the lack of providing sufficient water relief form part of our observation, as and when there are water interruptions,” Dlabathi said.
He said both the City’s water department and Rand Water must work together to restore a full and sustainable supply of water.
“Where we may need to adjust the budget to accelerate infrastructure repairs, the ANC caucus will certainly give support. For instance, increasing the capacity of water tankers that are owned by the city
“Once more, we condemn the lies perpetuated by some politically orchestrated voice notes insinuating that water cuts were intentional and sought to benefit some ANC-aligned businesspersons. We dismiss such a sinister narrative as misleading and untrue,” he said.
Dlabathi said they are closely monitoring the state of the City's finances, especially in view of the 3rd and 4th quarter reports, which depicted a troubling state of finances.
“This is qualified by an actual deficit of R2.9 billion in the 4th quarter against a budgeted deficit of R1.5bn. Furthermore, the high outstanding creditor’s amounts of R2.6bn and R800 million for both Eskom and Rand Water serve as an alarm, having noted that some of the cited underlying reasons relate to low collection and insufficient budget,” said Dlabathi.
The Star