Government's neglect has caused suffering for communities for 15 years
This is the press statement released following an oversight visit conducted today in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) by the DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Annette Steyn MP, and Portfolio Committee Member on Water and Sanitation, Tarnia Baker MP.
This week’s oversight inspection of the living conditions of rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) - in light of the recent drought - has revealed that thousands of people have been living without access to water for 15 years. We heard complaints that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has not set foot, nor attended to delivering water and agricultural support to these communities in recent weeks.
The DA is concerned by the absence of government in areas such as Hluhluwe, where the Ministers, nor the local councillors have addressed these communities as to why they are doing nothing about dying cattle and crops, starving children with no access to drinking water at schools and the breadwinners who have lost their jobs because farms can longer stay in business.
The DA believes that Parliament and the rest of South Africa have to witness for themselves the unnecessary suffering of KZN communities, first-hand, as we have witnessed it.
We will be immediately urging DAFF Minister Zokwana , DWS Minister Mokonyane and their respective department’s to go to Northern KZN to see the horrific living conditions of communities for themselves. I will also be requesting that Mr Zokwana commission an assessment of the severity of effects of the drought on agriculture, not only in KZN but nationally. We will ensure Parliament knows full extent of the drought and the reasons as to why DAFF and the DWS have been missing-in-action.
Whilst on the oversight, local farmers estimated that 50% of cattle had died in the past few months due to the lack of feed and by the lack of water. People in these areas not only depend on cattle for income, but for food. The drought has wiped out most of their crops and once the cattle are dead, they will be without hope for survival.
The department of agriculture has now put out a tender that has been issued to supply 2 000 tons of cattle feed which will only feed 4 700 cattle, whilst the entire region has approximately 500 000 cattle starving. There is no rationale for this tender as it doesn’t even address 1% of the cattle needing nutrition.
Furthermore, Minister Makonyane, has said that 150 water tankers have been deployed in the region which is a paltry number considering the extent of the problem in Northern KZN, especially when taking into account that the drought is expect to continue until autumn 2016. Communities such as uMkhanyakude have only received 10 water tankers, where some communities only receive truck water deliveries once every three months.
Even worse, there are communities that live purely by buying water from nearby towns such as Mtutuba, where unemployed people are forced to buy water at exorbitant prices and have to pay for transporting this water. This is horrific to say the least.
We will be compiling a document based on the findings of our oversight, and I will be presenting this before Parliament to the effect we beckon government to act to end the suffering of rural communities at the hands of a non-caring ANC government.
The DA will fight tireless to allow all South African’s the inalienable right to water and food, it should never be that some communities in this country have to withstand such suffering.
Issued by Annette Steyn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Tarnia Baker, DA Portfolio Committee Member on Water and Sanitation, 4 November 2015
