As Tshwane’s taps run dry, the ANC marches on itself

8 November 2024

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply concerned at the lack of action being shown by the ANC-led coalition in Tshwane as the capital’s taps run dry.

As Tshwane’s water situation has worsened, the city’s ANC-led coalition has been missing in action. Several communities in the city have now been without water for days on end.

Some communities like Laudium and Soshanguve have been hit with a second water outage in less than a week. The ANC MMC for Utility Services Frans Boshielo is yet to release a single communication to the public (most of the statements are left to Tshwane corporate communication).

Today MMC Boshielo will be joining an ANC march in Pretoria’s inner city. He should instead be doing inspections at reservoirs and giving feedback to the public.

Once you’re appointed to government office, you stop marching, and you start working.

Of course, water problems in Tshwane and Gauteng cannot be solved overnight. Under my leadership, Tshwane worked with National Treasury to devise and adopt a water turnaround strategy. If implemented, this strategy will reduce water losses in the medium term.

But when reservoirs keep running dry in the short term, the mayor and her team need to be hands on. Don’t allow officials to ignore councillors. Inform communities what is going on. Devise a plan to get reservoirs filled up. Don’t just depend on corporate communication to issue statements, and then let water tankers rake up massive bills.

The ANC and their coalition partners have made big promises to improve service delivery in townships, but the reality is that they’ve underestimated the task of government, and now things are only getting worse.

Statement issued by Ald Cilliers Brink, DA Tshwane Caucus Leader, 8 November 2024