The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini has reliably learnt that efforts to replace all existing 1 772 contractor plumbers in eThekwini are underway. According to the information we have received, there is a tender calling for the expression of interest for the contractors to do the maintenance and new installation of water infrastructure within eThekwini municipality for a period of 36 months is out and closes on the 5th November 202, exactly 4 days after the elections.
Though ordinarily this would appear as a positive development that should solely aim to enhance the operations of the embattled eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit (EWS), particularly for the fixing of water related complaints, this is not sufficient.
It is public knowledge that there has been extensive looting in this unit under the ANC government and under Zandile Gumede in particular. Much of the looting is alleged to have been done through ghost plumbers belonging to employees and ANC politicians. Just less than 12 months ago, the South African Police Service (SAPS) along with the Hawks raided 15 properties belonging to water and sanitation unit employees and service providers in Durban, seizing documents and electronic equipment connected to a probe into the R700 million corruption in eThekwini’s Water and Sanitation Department.
To date there has been no successful prosecution, instead our sources inform us that suspended implicated employees and contractors are reported to have quietly returned to work. These are the same officials who were accused of registering fictitious businesses to accept money, falsify paperwork, and hand-picking or endorsing service providers who were paid for work that was never completed.
It is our strong view that the inefficiency of the unit has got much to do with the consistent lack of consequence management for the wrongdoers and those in positions of power. This has had a detrimental impact on the stable delivery and supply of water to the residents of the city.
Furthermore, in all the recent EWS monthly reports to the Human Settlement and Infrastructure committee, the leading reasons listed in the reports for the inefficiencies include unresponsive supply chain management processes, lack of material, budgetary constraints, ageing infrastructure and communities stopping key projects because of community participation goals (CPG) allocations.
Just this year, responding to a DA section 27 question in this year’s June council meeting, the ANC confirmed that “there are various contracts that service maintenance operations across the Municipality that have been impacted negatively on by staffing shortages, staff movements, legal challenges in the Bid Committee processes, funding shortfalls and imported parts.”
It is for this reason that in 2019 already, the DA submitted a motion in council that was specifically asking for an investigation to be conducted in the non-functioning of the Water and Sanitation unit. But this was mischievously voted against by the ANC councillors.
It is clear that the challenges in the unit run deeper than just to changing contractors and that is why we view this with suspicion and see it as perhaps a specially manufactured opportunity to get rid of Zandile Gumede aligned contractors and introduce the current dominant ANC faction aligned contractors in order to continue looting the water department.
Therefore, any efforts to clean the unit without any form of investigation and prosecution of those involved in turning the unit into a cash cow does not hold water and must be treated with suspicion. We will closely monitor this and we will continue to fight for a more efficient municipality and a water department that puts its residents first.