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DA to lodge a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission over water crisis in Gauteng

On Monday, 31 October 2022, the Official Leader of the Opposition in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga MPL, and the DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Infrastructure Development, Nico De Jager MPL, will be laying a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in Braamfontein regarding the current water crisis in the province.

For many weeks our residents have been left with limited access to water and electricity. Rand Water has been calling on our residents to use water sparingly, yet during our recent oversight inspection of the pumping station and water reservoir in Eikenhof, we discovered that there is a water leak right outside their premises.

This is concerning as our residents are forced to collect water from water tankers which has already resulted in a 13-year-old boy being admitted to the hospital in critical condition after he was knocked over by a car while collecting water in Coronationville.

Access to water is a basic human right and this right is currently being infringed on by Rand Water which is throttling supply to various reservoirs and pumping stations in the province. This right should not become dangerous, and our residents pay for a service that they expect to be delivered without interruption.

The media is invited and there will be an opportunity for interviews and photographs

Details of the event are as follows:

Date: 31 October 2022

Time: 11:00

Address: 27 Stiemens St, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001

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Emfuleni spends over R200 million on service providers, yet sewer and water leaks persist

The residents of Emfuleni Local Municipality must still bear the brunt of poor service delivery as their streets continue to be filled with sewer spillages and water leakages yet, the municipality’s Metsi a Lekoa Unit has spent over R221,613,086.97 million on service providers.

This is unaccaptable considering that Emfuleni has also spent over R65 million on overtime for Metsi a Lekao employees in the last four financial years and there is nothing to show for the money spent.

This information was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile in a written reply to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Maile, Metsi a Lekoa has contracted service providers to unblock sewers and fix water leakages for a period of 36 months.

The following service providers are among the list of service providers that have already been paid millions by the municipality:

• Lekoa Construction Services was paid R20, 509,677.81,
• Garujo Trading Enterprise was paid R12, 804,880.10,
• Bokana Construction and Projects was paid R15,563,812.75
• Sobangena Trading was paid R32,844,928.42
• Ntlangano Business Enterprise was paid R11, 066, 785.04,
• Kunjalo Kunje Trading was paid R10, 286, 436.01,
• and Alsandro Construction Pty was paid R83,757,974.86

This municipality to continue to waste millions of rands instead of fixing the water infrastructure to reduce water losses. This is certainly money down the drain because no results have been yielded.

There are also allegations that some of the above companies are owned by members of the ANC and the DA will liaise with the relevant authorities to investigate the procurement processes and possible corruption in this regard.

The DA will be engaging our councillors in Emfuleni to propose that the municipality must consider scrapping the outsourcing of service providers and instead use in-house resources to fix the persistent water and sewer issues.

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DA Proposes Drought Relief Motion

Speech by: Ina Cilliers MPL

“Innovation the key to mitigate drought effect on Gauteng Agricultural sector”

  • In Gauteng we have the talent, the resources and the technology to implement effective strategies to farm and live in a semi-arid environment, in the midst of a drought that is never going to abate completely;
  • Every time you flush a toilet, 9 litres of quality water is lost. Municipalities could start exploring dry sanitation solutions, and rewarding communities for grey water recycling, the use of irrigation systems linked to weather stations and diversifying water resources instead of relying solely on rainwater.
  • Re-directing resources to fix and maintain reticulation infrastructure and implementing a rapid response approach to leaks has worked well in certain Western Cape municipalities where water losses stand at only 14%;
  • Drought relief must expand from drilling boreholes and providing fodder to providing farmers with permanent organic soil cover, drought resistant crop cultivars, no-till mechanisation, and precision farming applications. It is already much easier to download an extension officer from the app store than to see a live one from GDARD;
  • Government is still advocating agricultural methodology that is as old, outdated and downright bad for the farming economy.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

Speech by: Janho Engelbrecht MPL

“The poor will be hit hardest by Government’s inaction over drought”

  • Vast amounts of food are consumed in Gauteng, the most densely populated of all our provinces, therefore the people of this province are dependent on others for most of our food, and it is precisely this dependency that puts us at risk;
  • The drought is making it more expensive to operate, and that cost is being passed onto the consumer. This could have been avoided if government took urgent action and declared the drought a national disaster earlier this year, freeing up funding that would have resulted in better supply, and lower prices;
  • While we may not yet be experiencing food insecurity, we are already seeing increased community and household food insecurity amongst the poorest of the poor in Gauteng. Food price inflation increases hurt the poor when particular staple foods along with bread and cereals increase by 16%; fruit by 20% and vegetables by 15.4%;
  • We need real solutions to a crisis that has the potential to destabilize our province.

The full speech can be obtained here.

 

 

 

Media Enquiries:

Ina Cilliers MPL

DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Agriculture

060 556 4344

 

Janho Engelbrecht MPL

DA Gauteng Spokesperson on Agriculture

060 556 4343

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Thousands of litres of water wasted as Rand Water fails to fix leaks in Actonville

I have been reporting water leaks in Actonville to Rand Water since last year December. However, to date Rand Water has failed to successfully fix these leaks.

This is unacceptable as water should be spared now more than ever given the nationwide drought.

On the 11th of December 2015, I reported a water leak in Arbebeen Road coming into Mayet Drive and Link Road, Actonville with reference number 1724604. The pipe that burst belongs to Rand Water and I sent an email to the Head of Ekurhuleni Metro Water Department and Chief Area Engineer, Mr Vincent Nkosi.

On the same day Mr Nkosi copied me into an email sent to employees stating that Rand Water must be informed of the leak as a matter of urgency. However, two days later I received calls from residents reporting that the pipe is still leaking. I again reported this information via email to Mr Nkosi.

On the 14th of December I was informed that the leak has been fixed, but on the 15th of December the pipe was leaking again.

I reported the new leak to Mr Nkosi but did not receive a reply for more than a month. By the 14th of January this year the pipe was still leaking and I again reported it to him. I reported the leaks again on the 20th and 25th of January respectively.

On the 26th of January I received a response from Mr Simon Molefi Xaba, Senior Manager of Capital Projects for Rand Water, stating that the pipeline is experiencing leaks due to excessive corrosion. Mr Xaba further stated that Rand Water is being assisted by the Ekurhuleni Metro to install AC power for the purpose of activating the cathodic protection after which sections of the corroded pipes will be replaced and in the meantime they have assigned a contractor to fix the leaks as they occur.

However, neither the Ekurhuleni Metro nor Rand Water has not been able to tend to this leak to date.

The pipe is still leaking (pictures attached) due to a lack of maintenance by Rand Water and as a result thousands of litres of precious water is going to waste.

By the end of March, thousands of Muslims will come to Actonville for the Ijtima Congregation and if the leak is still not fixed by then, Actonville will be plagued by traffic congestion because residents seek alternative routes to avoid the leak and water will be extremely scarce.

 

Media enquiries:

Haseena Ismail

PR Councillor: Ward 29, Benoni

0823784991 / 0725218031

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