DEAR Editor;
The Democratic Alliance in the Ugu District Municipality has written to KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala, and KZN Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Sipho Hlomuka, to request them to declare the district a disaster area in terms of Section 55 of the Disaster Management Act.
The Ugu water crisis is now entering its sixth year and shows no signs of abating. Currently, areas around Ramsgate, Margate, Hibberdene and Izingolweni remain without water approaching 17 weeks. Water tankers have not been delivering water to households or refilling community static tanks as filling points have run dry.
The latest water outages are due to lack of vital maintenance, replacement parts, generators at vital water treatment plants and broken pumps. Ongoing problems related to water service delivery have created havoc in this district. Acts of sabotage, intimidation, political infighting and infrastructure vandalism have resulted in this municipality being unable to provide water services to its almost one million residents for many years.
The Bill of Rights in the Constitution notes in Section 27(1) that everyone has the right to water.
Due to the variety of factors impacting negatively on water provision, the municipality is unable to provide this basic service, and the efforts of a multi-disciplinary, inter-governmental approach is now necessary. The provisions laid out in Section 44 of the Disaster Management Act need to be brought into effect to address the disaster that the district is now facing.
Given the current situation, the only solution will be a high-level disaster management intervention and this is why we have written to the premier and MEC of Cogta. They need to ensure that these measures are put in place.
We urge Premier Zikalala to take the necessary and bold action to provide the leadership and support as required.
Failure to respond within seven days will leave us no choice but to escalate the matter to President Cyril Ramaphosa and national minister of Cogta, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
For several years, we have written to the office of the MEC and premier calling on the provincial government to put the Ugu district under administration. However, these calls have been ignored and we now sit with a situation that is untenable within a capable and functional state.
Other districts and municipalities with fewer problems have had much swifter and committed interventions by the provincial government.
In the 2021 local government elections, residents of Ugu also have the choice to do away with a government that is doing nothing for them and instead give a party that has a track record of good governance to show them what an efficient and effective government is.
RISHIGEN VIRANNA MPL
Democratic Alliance Ugu South constituency head
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