Hammanskraal residents collect water from a truck amid a crisis believed to have started almost a decade ago. File: Jacques Naude / African News Agency (ANA)
The DA came under attack from ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, who blamed the political party for allowing the problem of dirty water in Hammanskraal to continue after it assumed power in the City of Tshwane in 2016.
Mashaba was speaking during a community meeting hosted at Ebenezer Bible Church in Temba on Thursday night.
He told his audience that the recurring water crisis in the township was attributed to corruption before 2016 when the municipality was under the ANC administration.
He then slammed former Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga for failing to fix the water crisis despite several promises made by his political party to do so.
“In 2016 when the DA took over under Solly Msimanga I thought (that) because the DA has always proclaimed that where they govern the government work (it would address the problem). But this matter continued,”he said.
Instead, he said, the DA administration in 2019 appointed companies owned by businessman Edwin Sodi to refurbish the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant known to be the source of dirty water in Hammanskraal.
Mashaba said his party decided to conduct a public inquiry into the long standing problem of undrinkable water in Hammanskraal in the run-up to the 2021 local government election.
The DA, he said, refused to publicly share what happened to the Rooiwal project during the inquiry.
At the time former Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams scoffed at the invitation to appear at the hearing, labelling it a political stunt.
The inquiry found that the City of Tshwane failed to provide clean and drinkable water to Hammanskraal residents in line with Section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution, which guarantees access to sufficient water.
Mashaba said: “And making matters worse, after the 2021 local government elections, we put the DA in government in Tshwane, in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.”
He said when ActionSA started raising issues around the water problems with Williams and the DA leadership at the national level “they were just not interested”.
He praised Tshwane deputy Mayor Nasiphi Moya for her work since she was elected into the position in January.
He said Moya was chosen for the position because of her understanding of the City’s budget.
Mashaba said: “I am pleased that the people of Hammanskraal by the end of September will get clean water.”
This follows a recent visit by Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu, who promised that residents in Hammanskraal will access portable water through the Klipdrift Package Plant in September this year.
Mchunu also announced a long-term project to refurbish the Rooiwal through partnership between the Department of Water and Sanitation, the City and the Development Bank of Southern Africa as an implementing agent.
Pretoria News
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