DA proposes the establishment of an inter-governmental task team to deal with the water and load-shedding crisis in Gauteng

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is proposing the establishment of an inter-governmental task team to deal with the water and load-shedding crisis in Gauteng, as it is severely affecting the economy and the livelihoods of the residents.

The DA will be writing to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Premier of Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, the Minister for Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu and the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mzi Khumalo, regarding the water crisis that has emerged because of the ongoing load-shedding across the country.

The residents of Mogale City have either low water pressure or no water at all because of the ongoing load-shedding which has had a negative impact on the City’s water levels. In addition, some pumping stations are unable to pump water during load-shedding as they are not exempted from load-shedding.

The only way in which the current water crisis can be resolved is if an inter-governmental approach is taken, where all stakeholders responsible for the supply of water and electricity can formulate a plan which will allow water pumping stations and reservoirs to be exempted from load-shedding.

It is high time that Eskom gets its act together. Municipalities are forced to provide water tankers to residents and buy generators which may not be budgeted for. This will result in funds meant to provide services like grass-cutting being used to procure these additional items.

Mogale City has already procured water tankers for its residents to have access to water. Generators and boosters’ pumps have also been purchased and installed to help with the reticulation of water.

Access to water is a basic human right and, residents living in Mogale City are being denied this basic human right, yet they are paying for access to water. It is for this reason that we have also approached the Human Rights Commission (HRC) about this issue.

The DA is therefore demanding that the President together with the Premier of Gauteng urgently establish a task team to find solutions to the electricity and water problems in the province. Independent Power Producers (IPPs) must also be brought on board as soon as possible so that the province can be less reliant on Eskom for electricity.

There is also a need for a disaster management plan to outline how the province will deal with the higher stages of load-shedding should they be implemented again because it is not only affecting the water supply but also our economy.

Where we govern in the Western Cape, a plan has been put in place that affords our residents some protection from load-shedding while still ensuring a reliable supply of water and keeping the wheels of the economy turning.

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.

Emfuleni loses 56% of its water yet spends over R65 million on overtime

Emfuleni Local Municipality is losing about 56% of its water due to water leakages, illegal water network connections, faulty metering, incorrect meter readings and old and dilapidated water infrastructure, yet the municipality continues to spend on overtime for Metsi a Lekao employees.

The residents of Emfuleni are bearing the cost of an increase in rates for water and low water pressure due to the municipality’s failure to attend to reported water leaks timeously and to pay its debt owed to Rand Water while employees are paid exorbitant overtime.

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, Emfuleni has spent R65 832 014.47 on overtime for Metsi a Lekao employees in the last four financial years.

The breakdown of the money spent on overtime for Metsi a Lekao employees is as follows:

2021/2022 financial year – R10 601 586.76
2020/2021 financial year- R17 637 412.99
2019/2020 financial year- R19 633 849.46
2018/2019 financial year-R17 959 165.26

Total R65 832 014.47

This is unacceptable as Emfuleni residents are complaining about the municipality’s failure to attend to reported water leaks, blast water pipes and sewer blockages. This has resulted in sewer spillages across many streets in Emfuleni which is a health hazard.

This money that is wasted on Metsi a Lekao employees could be used to replace and fix the municipality’s ageing water pipes to ensure that they reduce water losses.

The DA will be engaging our councillors in Emfuleni to table the issue of water losses and cutting down on money being spent on employees’ overtime for discussion in council. This will assist in adopting measures to curb the waste of taxpayers’ money and ensure that the little money that Emfuleni has is spent wisely for the benefit of its residents. We will continue to put pressure on the Emfuleni Mayor to prioritise fixing and maintaining water infrastructure and educating residents about saving water.

Water is a precious scarce natural resource that must be preserved and to ensure that all residents have access to uninterrupted water supply Emfuleni must adopt effective water control measures and fix the ageing water infrastructure.

#GautengWaterCrisis: DA is not looking for votes Minister Mchunu, we want to ensure that the basic right of access to water is not compromised by incompetency

The incompetent and inefficient Rand Water has on several occasions failed to communicate timeously to the residents of Gauteng through their municipalities about the planned water outages due to the maintenance of water infrastructure.

Based on two previous occasions where our residents were abrupt left without water earlier this year, it raised concern for the DA. This is because the situation was not effectively communicated by Rand Water and therefore, we had no choice but to put pressure on the government to ensure that such instances were not repeated.

The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu is now trying to deflect the seriousness of the situation by saying that the DA has caused panic among Gauteng residents. However, the fact that they have delayed the planned scheduled maintenance from 1-3 April 2022 shows that there was no effective communication with the municipalities that were going to be affected.

Rand Water states that they are not responsible for providing water tankers to the affected municipalities during water outages yet, they are the ones who cause water supply interruptions due to their maintenance operations.

While we agree that there is a need to maintain water infrastructure, this however cannot be done by inconveniencing our residents. Rand Water must also be held financially accountable for the financial burden that is now placed on municipalities in terms of sourcing out water tankers.

Municipalities do not have sufficient water tankers to provide water to the affected residents during water outages caused by Rand Water. There should be a shared responsibility between the Rand Water and municipalities to ensure that areas affected by water outages are provided with water during that period. This will leave thousands of Gauteng residents without water and will then blame the municipalities for failing to provide water tankers.

The DA is not desperate for votes and will never politicise such a human crisis. We will continue to put pressure on both provincial and national governments as well as Rand Water to ensure an uninterrupted water supply for all Gauteng residents.

The DA is petitioning the Premier and COGTA MEC to lobby their national counterparts to engage with the South African National Defence Force to assist with water tankers during the water outages. We also demand a proper audit of all our water infrastructure in Gauteng.

We will be engaging with the Department of Water and Sanitation concerning its refusal to grant a license to Rand Water to increase its water capacity supply. We will also be engaging with Rand Water in terms of their water infrastructure maintenance plans and their ineffective communication to the municipalities.

#GautengWaterCrisis: DA Gauteng launches water campaign to ensure access to uninterrupted water supply for all residents

Gauteng residents are faced with a severe water crisis due to Rand Water’s incompetence and failure to provide water tankers to the affected residents during the water outages caused by the maintenance of water infrastructure.

Rand Water has scheduled water outages from 1-3 April 2022 due to major maintenance of water infrastructure. This will result in many areas across Gauteng not having water. The areas that will be most affected are parts of Tshwane, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, and Mogale City.

The residents will be placed in a dire situation as municipalities do not have sufficient water tankers to provide water to the affected areas. The DA has been reliably informed that the Provincial Disaster Management does not have water tankers to assist municipalities to provide water for the affected residents. This will leave thousands of Gauteng residents without water as Rand Water has on several occasions failed to provide water tankers or an alternative to the affected residents.

Based on previous experiences, some parts of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Mogale City have been without water for nearly a week due to the failure by Eskom to provide electricity to Rand Water. This resulted in Rand Water unable to supply water to numerous reservoirs. Electricity was restored; however, it took some days for Rand Water to fill up the water in the reservoirs to a sufficient level to reinstate supply.

It means that our people will suffer without water as Rand Water does not effectively communicate to the municipalities exactly how many days residents will be without water. Rand Water does not include the days that they will be waiting for the reservoirs to fill up in their communication. Our people will be left in the dark and the municipalities will be blamed.

The DA has written to the Gauteng Premier, MEC for COGTA, HOD of COGTA, Provincial Disaster Management and the CEO of Rand Water to urgently assist affected municipalities with water tankers to distribute water to the affected areas during water outages. We also requested that the Premier’s office should assist in ensuring that Rand Water is held financially accountable for failing to provide water during the planned water outages.

We have not yet received responses from all of the above. The DA also posed questions directly to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu last week during a ministerial briefing, where he gave no real commitment as to how they will address the water crisis in Gauteng, but merely shifted the blame to load shedding which is as a result of the failures of Eskom which is a national entity.

The DA will be embarking on the following initiatives to put pressure on both provincial and national government to ensure access to uninterrupted water supply for all Gauteng residents:

• Motion: the DA will table an urgent motion in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to debate the water crisis in Gauteng on Friday 25 March 2022 before the next planned major Rand Water outage on 1 April 2022.
• Petition: the DA will be petitioning the Premier and COGTA MEC to lobby their national counterparts to declare all water infrastructure national key points to be exempted from load shedding and to engage with the South African National Defence Force to assist with water tankers during the water outages. We also demand a proper audit of all our water infrastructure in Gauteng
• Memorandum: the DA will hand over a memorandum to the Premier, COGTA MEC and the CEO of Rand Water about the lack of water tankers during water outages, a severe lack of proper and regular maintenance of water infrastructure, and the need for a Water Indaba to discuss issues of investment into water infrastructure and funding as well as vandalism of water infrastructure
• Engagements: the DA will also be engaging with the Department of Water and Sanitation with regards to its refusal to grant a license to Rand Water to increase its water capacity supply. Gauteng has in the past years experienced huge growth in terms of the population due to immigration and there is a dire need to increase Rand Water’s water supply capacity. We will also be engaging with Rand Water in terms of their water infrastructure maintenance plans and their ineffective communication to the municipalities. We will engage with all our municipalities across Gauteng to discuss the water crisis and how they can intervene in terms of awareness campaigns on how to save water as a scarce resource.
• We will also be conducting oversight inspections of different water infrastructure points across the province to ascertain the challenges.

Based on last month’s experience, this crisis will manifest its self, starting from next week if there are no urgent interventions. The provincial disaster management centre does not have water tankers which means our residents will be severely impacted by the scheduled planned water outages.

Access to water is a basic human right and a Constitutional right. Water is life and people cannot do without it hence it is critical for all three spheres of government to ensure access to uninterrupted water for all residents.

Tshwane residents suffer ongoing water crisis due to Rand Water’s incompetency

The residents of Tshwane are now suffering because of the ongoing water crisis in some parts of the city due to the non-functioning of pump stations that feed water to certain reservoirs.

Most areas in the east of Pretoria have been without water since Saturday, 5 February 2022. Some of the areas affected are Moreleta Park, Constantia Park, Erasmuskloof, Pretorius Park, Olympus, Zwavelpoort, Wilds, Woodhill, Garsfontein, Faerie Glen, parts of Mamelodi and Kungwini.

The water interruptions are because of power failures from Eskom’s power station that supplies electricity to Rand Water. The power failure occurred on Saturday and resulted in Rand Water not being able to supply any water to numerous reservoirs, and the reservoirs were also unable to pump water through to certain areas. This situation affected the water supply to the residents of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.

Electricity was restored and the reservoirs had started pumping water, however, there was another electricity trip on Wednesday. The trip was fixed, and Rand Water has stopped its pumps from distributing water in some areas in Tshwane. Rand Water is currently filling up water in the reservoirs to a level that is high enough before they start providing water to Tshwane and other affected areas.

The City of Tshwane’s resources is currently stretched, following the flooding over the weekend as the local disaster management unit had to use all the resources that they had, and additional support is vital from the province in a crisis such as this.

The City does not have sufficient water tankers to provide water to all the affected residents without the assistance of either Eskom or Rand Water. This is leaving the majority of the east of Tshwane residents without water.

The DA strongly believes that water is a necessity and access to water is a Constitutional right and as such all-government stakeholders must ensure access to water for all residents. Since this issue originated from a problem from a national entity, we believe that it requires both national and provincial intervention as a matter of urgency.

The DA has written to the Premier, MEC for COGTA, HOD for COGTA, Provincial Disaster Management and the CEO of Rand Water to urgently assist the City of Tshwane with provincial water tankers to distribute water to the affected areas. We also requested that the Premier’s office should assist in ensuring that Rand Water is held financially accountable for failing to provide water.

 The DA is also asking for an urgent report from Rand Water to provide us with details on the following:

• What are the reasons behind water interruptions in some parts of Tshwane?

• Why has the water supply not been restored and when will it be restored?

• What support is Rand Water providing to the City of Tshwane to ensure that residents have access to an uninterrupted water supply?

• Will Rand Water be providing water tankers to the affected areas, or will they be assisting the City of Tshwane to pay the water bills if Tshwane had to outsource water tankers to supply water to the affected areas?

• Why there was no disaster plan in place in a case like this to be able to ensure that the residents have access to water?

• How do you intend to prevent water supply interruptions again and ensure such incidents don’t occur in the future?

The DA will also request the municipality to do an investigation and fact-finding mission on the functioning of the reservoir pressure pumps, maintenance and disaster management plans to prevent similar events like these in the future.

We further appeal to Rand Water to improve their communication and ensure that up to date information is sent to the municipalities to keep the communities informed. Rand Water must also ensure that water is restored in all the affected areas so that residents can have access to water as is their basic human right.

South Hills water crisis sits at the hands of Rand Water and Eskom

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in Linmeyer and South Hills, Johannesburg, visiting residents that have been consistently affected by water outages in the area.

The South Hills water tower which supplies water to areas such as South Hills, Linmeyer, Risana, Tulisa Park, parts of Oakdene and parts of Rosettenville Extension, left residents without water for over a week at the beginning of this month. These residents found themselves in the same predicament back in July this year, when they went without water for nine days.

The South Hills water tower is a microcosm of the legacy of Rand Water’s failure to proactively and systematically maintain their infrastructure. The reasons given for the latest water outages in the area was that the Meyers Hill reservoir was below the threshold at which water could be pumped into the South Hills tower. Rand Water had a power supply issue at their Zuikerbosch purification works plant towards the end of August, which affected pump stations feeding into Meyers Hill. Just this past weekend, the Zuikerbosch plant again was affected by power supply interruption at Eskom’s Snowden substation.

However, it is not only power outages that affects supply to water towers. While Rand Water tries to scapegoat electricity as the only reason, they also throttle water supply when conducting reactive maintenance of their ageing and neglected infrastructure. If Rand Water proactively and systematically maintained their infrastructure over the years since their inception, water supply outages would be a far less common occurrence for residents in Johannesburg, and across Gauteng.

Added to this, Eskom still plays a part in the breakdown of water supply in Gauteng. Constant loadshedding has weakened bulk water supply infrastructure, while the national power supplier has also failed to maintain their own neglected infrastructure. The domino effect is there for all to see, especially when it is residents who are forced to collect water from trucks down the road.

Financial year after financial year, City Power has not been given a sufficient budget to upgrade their own infrastructure to help supplement the failures of Eskom. This just goes to show the positive impact that Independent Power Producers could play in the delivery of critical basic services such as water provision, where public entities such as Eskom miserably fail.

Johannesburg needs innovative and forward thinking when it comes to the supply of basic services. A metro municipality cannot be held ransom by failing national entities such as Rand Water and Eskom who do not have the will to keep the lights on and the taps running. There already exists municipal-owned power and water suppliers in the form of City Power and Johannesburg Water. With the right political leadership and sufficient allocation of budgets, these entities can pick up where national entities fail in their duties, so that residents no longer suffer, and can have a government that is closer to them who is responsible for all their basic services.

A DA-led Johannesburg would invest R20 billion on fixing, replacing, and upgrading roads, bridges, water pipes, waste water plants and power grids, will fix reported water leaks within 24 hours, and seek greater public-private partnerships to address the existing backlog so that residents can start being liberated from non-existent basic service delivery.

Gauteng residents deprived of basic services with unfunded municipal budgets during 2021/22 financial year

Access to basic services such as electricity, water and sanitation by thousands of residents in seven local municipalities, including two district municipalities in Gauteng will be severely affected with these municipal councils having once again presented unfunded budgets for the 2021/22 financial year.

It is now becoming a norm that especially local municipalities are presenting unfunded budgets, which always results in a negative impact on service delivery.

Eskom and Rand Water are the two main creditors affected when an unfunded budget is presented by local municipalities, resulting in a reduction of services to our residents in the affected municipalities, such as scheduled electricity cuts during the day, making it even harder for residents to get by during the cold winter.

In response to my written questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL), the MEC for Finance and e-Government, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko revealed that the following municipalities have provided an unfunded budget for this financial year:

  • Mogale City Local Municipality
  • Lesedi Local Municipality
  • Emfuleni Local Municipality
  • Sedibeng District Municipality
  • Rand West Local Municipality
  • West Rand District Municipality
  • Merafong Local Municipality

It is appalling that thousands of residents living in these municipalities will be subjected to substandard service delivery or none at all because these municipalities do not have enough cash resources on hand to ensure that their creditors are paid on time.

This means that residents who are already suffering because of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, now have to pay for services that they are not receiving on a regular basis.

In addition, where services such as electricity and water are affected, it means that our residents are unable to cook food for their families and regularly wash their hands.

Furthermore, small businesses are also affected by the constant disruption of electricity by Eskom due to load reduction, which means that they lose valuable clientele when they are unable to operate.

If MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko is serious about ensuring that all local municipalities are able to present funded budgets, she will as a matter of urgency, conduct an internal inquiry to ascertain exactly why it is that seven out of eight local municipalities are not able to present a funded budget year after year. This trend clearly points to poor planning on the part of the municipality and a lackadaisical approach to their responsibility of providing services to residents.

The DA-led Midvaal is the only local municipality that has presented a funded budget in the province. Midvaal is committed to ensuring that they have enough cash liquidity so that residents can get the service delivery they need and deserve. The DA will continue to shine the spotlight on the lack of service delivery in these seven municipalities as it is unfair that residents are not provided with what they truly deserve.

Local Government Elections are coming up! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

Emfuleni residents battle Covid-19 without water and electricity

With no water and electricity, residents will endure an even tougher battle against the third wave of Covid-19, where they will be unable to use hot water to clean and protect themselves from the virus.

Emfuleni Local Municipality officials are struggling to reach out to its residents to attend to service delivery issues due to the shortage of vehicles, which greatly concerns the DA.

Only 129 out of 522 vehicles are roadworthy and operational in Emfuleni Local Municipality, which impacts negatively on service delivery in terms of officials attending to service delivery complaints such as power outages, water leakages and sewer blockages. 

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

According to MEC Maile, 302 vehicles are still waiting to be sent for repairs and 91 vehicles are being repaired. In total 393 vehicles are not operational in Emfuleni.

Furthermore, 41 vehicles have been repaired but have been kept by the service provider for over two years due to non-payment.

It is unacceptable for service providers not to be paid on time for services rendered which result in service delivery being interrupted and harms the sustainability of small businesses.

This is a clear indication that Emfuleni is experiencing a serious long-term cash flow crisis which has resulted in failing to pay service providers for services rendered.

It has now become a norm for this municipality not to pay service providers on time such as Telkom, resulting in telecommunication lines being suspended, where residents could not communicate service delivery issues directly to the Municipality.  

Emfuleni must prioritise paying service providers within a 30-day payment period, ensuring that no services to residents are interrupted.

The current situation in Emfuleni is a clear indication that the current government and its administrators are failing to rescue this municipality from its long financial crisis.

Emfuleni residents have suffered enough of a lack of service delivery under the current administration and the only solution to this long-suffering is to vote for a change of administration during this coming local government elections. By voting for the DA, we will ensure that we replicate what we have been doing in Midvaal to the residents of Emfuleni, where service delivery is rolled out on a sustainable basis with a responsive municipality that always strives to timeously deal with any issues. 

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status

Joburg Water disruption hits Helen Joseph Hospital

Johannesburg’s unreliable water supply hit the Helen Joseph Hospital this week, which struggled without water for more than two days, causing great distress to staff and patients.

The cause of the problem was a disrupted supply of water from the Hursthill Reservoir, which affected a large part of north west Johannesburg.

Patients at the hospital were given bottled water, but toilets became blocked and smelly, and a number of operations were cancelled.

One patient even ordered a delivery of water from a supermarket in order to help other patients in his ward.

This hospital has suffered previously from the city’s failing water system due to years of poor maintenance.

Our public health system is already severely strained, but hospitals and clinics have to cope with water and power cuts which happen without warning.

Sometimes the problem is internal, like when pipe problems recently cut water to the Steve Biko hospital.

It is outrageous that mismanagement at various levels inflicts hardship on places of healing.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.