Letter: A baseless argument

Water resources planning and engineering consultant Osborne Gwamanda of Mandeni writes:

I am neither a representative of iLembe District Municipality (IDM) nor am I associated in any way with IDM.

However, as an active water professional and permanent citizen of IDM, I couldn’t help read with repulsion former Dolphin Coast councillor Ian Coates’ letter “What next for Siza?” (The North Coast Courier, March 12).

Frankly, Mr Coates writes from a position of white privilege and like many of his ‘type’ he simply cannot hide the White Monopoly Capital undertone in his baseless argument.

Instead of whining and overreacting like the right-wing “Oranians”, perhaps Mr Coates should have given us a few basic facts.

One, why the Siza Water concession has in the past 23 years not expanded its business model to other parts of iLembe?

Simple, they are too black and too poor! Two, how many black-owned SMMEs has the Siza Water concession uplifted and empowered?

Probably a handful and done so as a PR exercise or for compliance of some sort, but I stand to be corrected.

In September 2019 I attended a Water & Sanitation Public Private Partnership summit at IDM where Siza Water’s CEO gave a lengthy, sugar-coated speech on how much Siza Water has done to empower black SMMEs.

Most delegates didn’t buy his story – neither did I!

The fundamental question from delegates was, why must “Dolphin Coast” have an exclusive water service?

The answer is simple: in 2021 many white South African communities still think it is okay to maintain the pre-1994 apartheid status quo of inequality wherein they flex their financial muscle through private sector partnerships with government to fund these concessions that perpetuate white supremacy – while undermining black lives.

Why do we not see such concessions in places like Mandeni, a highly productive industrial area that was once the heartbeat of the iLembe economy?

Mr Coates goes on to question IDM’s capacity, technical acumen, levels of service, and not to mention diligence that supposedly must be undertaken by IDM in preparation for the take-over of the Siza Water concession in 2028.

What arrogance.

IDM services 4 municipalities and must put aside the needs of the poor black masses in order to undertake a due diligence study for the elite white people of ‘Dolphin Coast’?

Rubbish!

IDM’s 2019/2020 Integrated Development Plan Review shows how far IDM has come in addressing water and sanitation backlogs and service delivery in recent years – even during the height of the recent drought and ageing infrastructure inherited from the apartheid government.

For example, the substantial gains IDM has made year on year in reducing the number of households that do not have access to water.

I am not oblivious to the many customer/community complaints arising from service delivery challenges that IDM faces.

But to imply that we must all panic, along with Mr Coates while he sits in his air-conditioned Dolphin Coast mansion simply because in 7 years from now option one in the concession agreement is for the entire operation to be handed over to IDM is nothing short of absurd to say the least.

Letter shortened – Editor.