The blame for the water crisis that has been plaguing the Matjhabeng Local Municipality (Welkom, Odendaalsrus, Virginia, Allanridge) for days and that is infringing on residents' constitutional right to water can only be laid at the door of the Mayor, Nkosenjani Speelman.
The Municipality's debt to Eskom amounts to a staggering R3,4 billion and it goes to show that the ANC is simply unable to ensure proper service delivery in Matjhabeng. As executive Mayor, Speelman and the ANC are responsible for the fact that residents do not have access to consistent water supply.
However, Sedibeng Water, water supplier to Matjhabeng, is not innocent either. The water supplier is responsible for ensuring that outstanding debt is duly collected to prevent this kind of crisis from occurring.
The FF Plus requested that when the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) pays an oversight visit during its provincial week, Sedibeng Water and Matjhabeng must indicate how solutions for the ongoing problem will be found.
Even after a discussion with the Free State MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Thembeni Nxangisa, it remains unclear whether the Municipality did indeed make a payment of R9 million to Sedibeng because Nxangisa was unable to confirm this.
It appears as if Speelman is trying to mislead residents in an attempt to pacify them, at least temporarily.
Residents are, however, entitled to feel angry because under the ANC's leadership, there is no service delivery in Matjhabeng. Repairs to water and sewage infrastructure are only done on a crisis-management basis and the Municipality is also unable to do proper financial planning and management.
The FF Plus demands that the problem must be addressed and resolved during the provincial week.
The FF Plus will also demand answers from the Sedibeng Water Board representatives about why they did not intervene on behalf of the Municipality and residents to resolve the issue before it turned into a crisis.
Contact details: 076 629 6219
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