Water quality is not a Tshwane issue, it is a national crisis
23 May 2023
It has become clear in the last 24 hours that the current cholera outbreak is not exclusively a Tshwane issue, but that we are facing a possible national cholera outbreak.
Incidences of cholera have also been reported in the Free State and Limpopo, confirming that the outbreak in Tshwane is not the result of a lapse of service delivery from a municipality that has been in government for two months. It is the result of years and years of national government neglect and previous local government regimes who bankrupted Metros to the point of almost having to be placed under administration.
Fikile Mbalula, and the ANC, are deliberately trying to mislead the public with propaganda on how this crisis is directly linked to the DA-led multi-party coalition in Tshwane, carefully ignoring the history of their own neglect.
This cannot be more clearly evidenced than a parliamentary reply from the Minister of Water and Sanitation this month that revealed that water infrastructure backlogs will cost R89.9 billion per annum over 10 years, with 3 698 074 kilolitres of water lost every single day due to infrastructure failure and leakages. This costs South Africa R250 million every single year.