DA calls for premier’s intervention over water crisis in Govan Mbeki Municipality

SECUNDA – The DA in Mpumalanga has formally written to Premier Mandla Ndlovu, urging him to conduct an urgent oversight into persistent water shortages destabilising the Govan Mbeki Municipality.

According to the DA’s Mpumalanga spokesperson on Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, James Masango, the municipality has been struggling since 2018 to settle its debt with Rand Water.

Masango said the municipality’s debt to Rand Water has ballooned to about R850m, largely due to a worsening financial crisis.

As a result, Rand Water has implemented water throttling measures to enforce payment compliance.

“To date, the municipality is struggling to make regular payments towards Rand Water and keep up-to-date with the repayment agreement. As a result of this failure, water throttling has been implemented,” said Masango.

He added that the throttling has severely disrupted water supply, particularly in high-lying areas such as Bethal, where some residents have reportedly gone without water for up to two months.

ALSO CHECK: Families cry foul sale of Bracken Farm land

Masango criticised the municipality for failing to implement contingency plans to manage water outages.

“With the recent outages caused by erratic supply from Rand Water, the DA condemns the municipality’s lack of a contingency plan,” he said.

He noted that despite its constitutional mandate, the municipality has failed residents, with communities in Secunda, Bethal and eMzinoni often left uninformed about water supply schedules.

“Residents are not even told when they will receive water, as there are no clear delivery schedules in place,” Masango said.

The DA has called on Ndlovu to act in line with Section 27(2) of the Constitution, which obliges the state to take reasonable measures, within available resources, to progressively realise citizens’ right to access water.

“It cannot be business as usual. The DA will ensure that the water contingency plan we submitted is implemented, as it is the only way residents of Govan Mbeki Municipality will have reliable access to water,” Masango concluded.

ALSO CHECK: GMM Mayor address residents after protest