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#NationalWaterWeek: Gauteng residents have nothing to celebrate as taps run dry

The years of neglect of our water infrastructure across Gauteng, with a lack of proactive maintenance, and regular upgrades of existing infrastructure, coupled with poor communication from Rand Water, have left residents without water for days on end.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned about this unacceptable behaviour from Rand Water. This entity continuously blames vandalism for its woes when it is its job to secure the infrastructure.

The blame is shifted to municipalities when they should also be maintaining their own infrastructure. Furthermore, Rand Water continuously talks about municipalities exceeding their daily quota while doing minimal campaigning to conserve water and protect water sources.

The world celebrated World Water Day on 22 March 2023, and South Africa continues to celebrate National Water Week from 20-26 March to raise awareness about the global water crisis and the need to manage water resources sustainably. In reality, Gauteng residents had nothing to celebrate as areas of Lesedi Local Municipality, such as Heidelberg, are still battling without water after more than a week. Schools and residents must buy water for drinking and cleaning as the taps are dry.

Every time the Vereeniging plant experiences an infrastructure failure, the Rand Water Eikenhof reservoir system fails to supply water to large parts of Randburg, Roodepoort, Hursthill, Crosby and the Commando system that feeds water to Johannesburg South.

To add insult to injury, Joburg Water has again left large parts of the East and Northeast of Johannesburg without water. As much as we appreciate maintenance work, the timing of the maintenance after two weeks of intermittent water supply and lack of roaming water tankers is leaving residents highly frustrated.

Areas of Benoni in Ekurhuleni also suffered from water outages over the long weekend. As much as water entities would like to blame the system’s failures on loadshedding, neglect and the lack of electrical infrastructure maintenance and upgrades have led to the current dire situation.

World Water Day is about celebrating access to water, about the conservation of water resources. The Minister for Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, announced a R28 billion investment into 12 more Rand Water reservoirs while calling on municipalities to use less. However, as much as any capital investment must be welcomed, the DA insists that the Minister adopt a cooperative approach to assist municipalities with the maintenance upgrades where the municipalities cannot do it independently.

The DA has launched an online petition demanding that Rand Water act decisively and supply water. Sign our petition here

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No schooling for at least a month at Sizuzile Primary School due to delays in construction

Learning and teaching have been disrupted at the Sizuzile Primary School in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni, by angry parents. There has been no learning and teaching at this school for at least a month.

The parents are unhappy because it is alleged that a tender has been awarded for the school to be replaced with a brick-and-mortar structure, but there is no work to show that the contractor was appointed.

Some of the mobile classrooms are a safety hazard as the floorboards are uneven, and there are no proper steps leading into the classrooms. The mobile classrooms are unstable and posing a danger to learners.

In addition, some classrooms have been vandalised. Windows have been broken and cannot be used for learning and teaching.

See pictures here, here and here

See video here

It is unacceptable that these classrooms have been vandalised simply because the Gauteng Provincial Government, under the leadership of Premier Panyaza Lesufi, has failed to ensure that proper plans have been put in place so that construction work can begin.

The DA will be submitting written questions to the Gauteng MEC for Education, Matome Chiloane and the MEC for Infrastructure Development, Lebogang Maile, to determine when construction work will begin and what contingency plans will be put in place to ensure that learning and teaching are not disrupted during the construction of the new school.

All our children deserve to be taught in an environment that is conducive to learning and teaching. However, we also urge parents not to take matters into their own hands and damage the current infrastructure that is in place.

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DA will fight Lesufi’s plan to make Tshwane ungovernable

Note to editors: A voice note from Cllr Cilliers Brink pertaining to this statement can be found here in English and here in Afrikaans.

The DA in Tshwane will not stop fighting for stable, accountable government in Tshwane, even as the Gauteng ANC-EFF coalition tries everything in their power to make the City ungovernable with residents as collateral. We will also resist any effort by the ANC premier of Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi to create conditions for the City to be placed under administration.

Attorneys for the DA and our coalition partners have written to the ANC-EFF puppet Speaker of Tshwane to demand that he resume the Council meeting to elect an Executive Mayor to serve and reassure the residents of the City.

Yesterday the Speaker adjourned this meeting on the pretext of a dispute within COPE over who their sole councillor must be. The issue of who is to fill COPE’s vacancy is, howver, simple: the Speaker can merely consult the IEC to determine who the next person is on the list.

The real reason the Speaker obstructed the progress of the meeting was that the ANC-EFF coalition does not have the numbers to elect an Executive Mayor.

Previously the ANC-EFF coalition relied on the support of individual picked-off councillors from other parties to secretly vote against their parties and their electoral mandate. But each of the parties in the Multi-Party Coalition have now taken steps to clean house and ensure the underhanded tactics previously used cannot again succeed. Three ActionSA councillors have been fired. The police is also investigating an allegation by another ActionSA councillor that he was offered a R2 million bribe to secretly vote for the ANC-EFF coalition.

Premier Panyaza Lesufi has been instrumental in forging the Gauteng ANC-EFF coalition and, adding deed to his word, causing the current chaos in Tshwane. He personally persuaded the now-disgraced COPE councillor Murunwa Makwarela to become the ANC-EFF puppet mayoral candidate. Makwarela was later discovered to be an unrehabilitated insolvent.

It is clear that Lesufi’s game plan for the political benefit of the ANC-EFF coalition is to cause chaos in Tshwane and manufacture conditions for the City to be placed under ‘administration’ by his provincial executive committee. Residents will not forget that the last time the ANC Gauteng government ‘intervened’ in Tshwane, it caused financial devastation and the breakdown of financial controls.

When the ANC-EFF last sought to capture Tshwane, the DA obtained a Constitutional Court order against the Gauteng government. We will use this precedent to defend Tshwane against Lesufi’s prying hands.

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DA Gauteng wishes the Muslim community, Ramadan Mubarak

As we enter the holy month of Ramadan, we would like to take a moment to wish all Muslims a blessed and peaceful month. Ramadan is a time for reflection, devotion, and giving back to our communities.

However, we are also aware of the ongoing power and water outages that are affecting many communities across Gauteng. We understand that this can add to the challenges of observing Ramadan, and we as the Democratic Alliance (DA) are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that these essential services impacted by the incompetence of Rand Water and Eskom be mitigated as quickly as possible.

We are also deeply concerned about the few incidents of armed and attempted armed robberies at Mosques during times of prayers. This is a callous and despicable act that goes against the very spirit of religious observation and devotion faced not only by the Muslim community but all religions. We demand that law enforcement agencies must ensure that those responsible for these crimes are apprehended and brought to justice.

Finally, we urge all members of the Muslim community to stay vigilant during this time and to report any suspicious activity to the authorities immediately. Together, we can make this Ramadan a safe and peaceful one for all Insha’Allah (God Willing).

We wish all Muslims a Ramadan Mubarak. May the blessings of the month of Ramadan be on all of us and may Allah SWT accept our prayers and fast.

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Speaker Makhubele’s absenteeism exposes her political opportunism and unwillingness to serve the people of Johannesburg

The DA in Johannesburg notes with concern the dereliction of duty by the Speaker of Council, Cllr Colleen Makhubele.

Yesterday, instead of doing her job of presiding over Council matters as Speaker, Cllr Makhubele put the politics of her party’s collaboration with the ANC-EFF coalition of corruption above the people of Johannesburg, choosing to attend a meeting of the Tshwane City Council as it sought to elect a new Executive Mayor. This follows the chaotic mayoral election and fall of Murunwa Makwarela, elected as the sole COPE colleague in Tshwane of Cllr Makhubele, who was elevated to the Tshwane mayoralty by the ANC-EFF, only to vacate the office amidst allegations of ineligibility, insolvency, and fraud. This led to COPE acknowledging serious concerns regarding the integrity of their elected officials in Gauteng.

As Speaker, Cllr Makhubele carries a constitutional and democratic obligation to, more than any other elected official in the City Council, disengage from opportunistic and petty party politics. Yesterday’s desertion of her Council duties to assist the ANC-EFF as it sought to undermine the governance of the City of Tshwane is simply yet another instance of Cllr Makhubele illustrating her tragic lack of understanding of her own office.

This is a Speaker unable to achieve the impartiality her office requires and who engages is party political attacks on those sitting in the Council over which she presides. But, it is a new low, even by the standards of this Speaker, to so shamelessly put the party politics of another City Council above her obligations to the Council she is supposed to be a servant of.

The speakership of Cllr Makhubele has been a democratic travesty. Her incompetence. Especially in defending women in Council from sexist abuse, her unashamed partiality, and her bullying of Council members have been matched in scale intensity only by her commitment to self-promotion.

Whilst Cllr Makhubele’s dereliction of her duties in Johannesburg is embarrassing for her, it is perhaps more so that proceedings yesterday in Council ran smoother and more effectively in her absence. For the first time in seven months the proceedings were held with a semblance of professionalism, such as would be expected of any Council seeking to serve its residents.

The DA in Johannesburg wishes to thank Cllr Lloyd Phillips, the Chair of Chairs, for the impartial and productive manner in which he presided over Council business yesterday.

The DA in Johannesburg will urgently refer Speaker Makhubele’s dereliction of duty to the City’s ethics committee for investigation. The residents of Johannesburg deserve a Speaker who puts the City’s interests above her own political ambitions.

 

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774 vacant posts at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital

Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital is inundated with patients but has 774 vacant posts, which includes a shortage of 357 nurses and 124 doctors.

These figures are revealed by Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo Ralehoko in a written reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

It works out to about 1 in 7 vacant posts out of the 5334 total staff complement.

The hospital is also short of 253 administrative and support staff, and 40 therapeutic services staff.

According to the MEC, the vacant positions are due to employee deaths, resignations, transfers and retirements.

Since January last year, 650 staff have left. Their exit interviews mention growth prospects, working conditions, family reasons and better remuneration.

The MEC admits the vacancies affect patients negatively as follows:

Increase in infections within the hospital, Patient Safety Incidents (PSI), litigations, waiting times, surgical backlogs, inadequate patient care and complaints.

It is scandalous that there are so many vacancies and resignations, mostly due to poor management and the botched re-opening after the devastating fire in April 2021.

This has led to neglect of patients, increased infections and massive surgery backlogs.

Hospital CEO Gladys Bogoshi has failed in her job and should be replaced with a dynamic new CEO to lead a rejuvenated management team at this flagship hospital.

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Emerging Gauteng artists receive no financial support from Lesufi’s government

Emerging artists are struggling to establish a viable career in the arts industry. This has been made worse by Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government which has failed to meet any of its set targets for emerging artists.

These failures are a clear indication that Premier Lesufi’s dream to use sports and arts as a vehicle for economic empowerment and transformation is just a pipe dream.

According to the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) third quarterly report for the 2022/2023 financial year, the following targets were not met:

  • No arts and culture integrated programme was achieved for no-fee schools against a target of 90;
  • No cultural and creative industries supported against a target of three;
  • No emerging DJs were supported against the target of 200;
  • No arts and cultural events were supported against a target of 10;
  • No animation enterprise developers were supported against a target of 12;
  • No new statues for heroes and heroines of the Heritage Liberation Struggle were installed, although a target of one was set;
  • No community outreach programmes in museums were conducted, although a target of three was set;
  • No hospital/clinic libraries were established, although a target of seven was set;
  • No non-fee-paying schools were supported with library services, although a target of ten was set.

It is unacceptable that this department managed to overspend on its budget by R270 500 but was unable to meet any of the targets outlined above. Our creative industry took a huge setback during the Covid-19 pandemic and needs all the financial support it can get to start thriving again.

A DA government would ensure that the budget allocated for this department is spent properly and that all targets are met. We will ensure that the money allocated is only spent in a manner that benefits our sports, arts and culture industry. It is unacceptable that the goal posts for meeting targets by this department are constantly shifted.

 

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DA to assess why Sizuzile Primary School has been shut down

Today, Thursday, 23 March 2023, the Democratic Alliance Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL, will conduct an oversight inspection at Sizuzile Primary School in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni.

The DA has been reliably informed that the school has been shut down nearly a month ago. The two grade R classrooms were burnt down to ashes. It is alleged that angry parents have been protesting outside the school preventing teaching and learning from taking place. Learners have lost much of their valuable schooling time because of the ongoing protest.

Members of the media are invited and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.

The details of the oversight inspection are as follows:

Date: Thursday 23 March 2023

Time: 10:00 am

Venue: Sizuzile Primary School

Address: 31450 9th Avenue, Tsakane, Ekurhuleni.

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DA to assess why Sizuzile Primary School has been shut down

Tomorrow, Thursday, 23 March 2023, the Democratic Alliance Shadow MEC for Education, Khume Ramulifho MPL, will conduct an oversight inspection at Sizuzile Primary School in Tsakane, Ekurhuleni.

The DA has been reliably informed that the school has been shut down nearly a month ago. The two grade R classrooms were burnt down to ashes. It is alleged that angry parents have been protesting outside the school preventing teaching and learning from taking place. Learners have lost much of their valuable schooling time because of the ongoing protest.

Members of the media are invited and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs.

The details of the oversight inspection are as follows:

Date: Thursday 23 March 2023

Time: 10:00 am

Venue: Sizuzile Primary School

Address: 31450 9th Avenue, Tsakane, Ekurhuleni.