KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary, Bheki Mtolo thought it was a good idea to use water as a means to market its election campaign in eThekwini, promising more ‘community engagements’ and ‘outreach programmes’. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo
The eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (EPRM) says they will believe the ANC when it shows them results, after KwaZulu-Natal African National Congress (ANC) secretary Bheki Mtolo announced the Provincial Working Committee (PWC) would spend a week in Durban to address water challenges.
Chairman of the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (EPRM) Asad Gaffer said the ANC’s words have no merit.
“It is all well and good to make such remarks on the eve of an election. They have said this before and the water situation in eThekwini only got worse. We will believe their words when we see results,” Gaffer said on Thursday.
Mtolo said the deployment of the PWC comes after the ANC received numerous complaints relating to water service delivery.
He was speaking in Durban during a media briefing on Wednesday.
“There will be a massive PWC outreach programme through community meetings to engage with all affected communities, respond to their issues and directly apologise for the inconvenience they have suffered through these shortcomings.
“Our people have long raised their discomfort about challenges around service delivery where they live. We urge all councillors to be always there to solve people’s problems, listen to their complaints,” Mtolo said.
Mtolo mentioned that President Cyril Ramaphosa will also be in eThekwini next month to discuss service delivery issues.
“As short-term Intervention, to solve the water crisis in eThekwini, the PEC has instructed the municipal leadership led by capable Mayor Kaunda to assess urgent areas that need water tankers that can provide water to our communities daily,” Mtolo said.
Residents living in the northern parts of the city, such as Verulam, oThongathi, Phoenix and Zwelisha have also grown extremely frustrated.
Water service delivery in northern eThekwini has been a nightmare for the better part of 2023, with consistent outages, lack of water trucks and an overall sense of hopelessness among the people.
Besides a management perspective, the heavy rains also had an effect on the level of water service delivery in these mentioned areas.
Verulam residents in Trenance Park who have been without water for almost 100 days, say their relief was short-lived on Tuesday, when water was restored to their taps for a few hours, only for them to run dry again, The Mercury reported.
Parkgate resident Slungile Biyela said when they received water from tankers, people got sick and experienced diarrhoea.
In its “KZN Water Inquiry” report published in 2023, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) found that some residents were sharing water sources with animals.
Protests have been ongoing in and around northern eThekwini areas over the constant water challenges.
But authorities say that the inclement weather caused delays and damage to infrastructure which could justify the recent outages.
The eThekwini Municipality also indicated that it is conducting extensive repair operations to northern water infrastructure assets in oThongathi, Verulam and Phoenix.
IOL has tried contacting Themba Mvubu from the EFF, head of the infrastructure and human settlements, on numerous occasions but never got through for a comment on the water crisis.
IOL