Gauteng municipalities’ failing service delivery not only poses a serious threat to South Africa’s economy and stability, but also to Sub-Saharan Africa’s.
Although Gauteng makes up only 1,4% of South Africa’s surface area, more than a quarter of South Africans reside in the province, while it contributes 33% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 8% to Sub-Saharan Africa’s.
Gauteng has the fourth largest economy in Africa, after the entire South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria.
Service delivery has reached a new low in Gauteng’s nine local municipalities and two district municipalities with, among other things, a large-scale water crisis brought on by water leakages and years of neglecting infrastructure, illegal water connections and failed housing developments.
Municipalities’ failure to pay Rand Water and inaccurate Integrated Development Plans coupled with the fact that the Lesotho Highlands Water Project will not supply water to Gauteng for at least six months due to scheduled maintenance exacerbate the problem.
In addition, sewage is dumped into valuable water resources on large scale, as is currently the case in the Mogale City Local Municipality. Ultimately, the water sources of neighbouring countries are also polluted.
Basic service delivery has already failed, and nearly all the municipalities in Gauteng are bankrupt and unsustainable.
To make matters worse, the ANC is exploiting municipalities for the deployment of cadres.
Stringent water restrictions have been imposed on the people of Gauteng and they could even face prosecution, while incompetent Gauteng government officials in municipalities get off scot-free.
Gauteng municipalities urgently need provincial intervention. However, the problem is that the Gauteng government itself is becoming increasingly dysfunctional and also requires intervention.
National government will have to criminally prosecute the municipal officials who violate legislation, particularly those who are responsible for the pollution of water resources, corruption and fraud.
The FF Plus is calling on government to immediately establish special investigative units to investigate this.
The entire local government system needs to be revised. Local communities should serve as the most basic level of government. The ANC’s biggest failure is the shocking state of local municipalities.
National government will have to step in and call the executive authority in Gauteng to order.