Despite Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda grandstanding in the media, announcing the completion of the Tongaat Water Treatment works, many people in Tongaat are on DAY 231 without water.
We are now calling upon the Mayor to address the people of Tongaat urgently, as to why they are the unfortunate beneficiaries of mismanagement, misinformation and shoddy treatment and solutions to address this crisis (see letter of invite to the Mayor here).
Residents have waited anxiously, each new day for signs of their water being restored, all in vain. The commissioning period was never explained to the residents of Tongaat who suffered months of pain and anguish. Having endured being a hotspot for the Covid-19 pandemic, hit by the July looting and arson and then the devastating floods. The residents of Tongaat have been reeling from one crisis to another.
Since the pomp and fanfare around the commissioning in October, the goalpost for complete restoration has been shifting every day. Whilst residents had been extremely patient, the information of late is not adding up. We are now reliably informed that Tongaat water works has stopped pumping at night, due to the overtime constraints experienced by eThekwini water and Sanitation. This pattern of water cuts was noticed by alert residents who monitor the water pressure and reticulation. They raised alarm bells as the reasons for outages proffered by officials did not tally with the nature of the outages and duration thereof.
The DA has communicated with the various tiers of management in an attempt to get some degree of transparency however we are receiving unacceptable, generic replies..
The quality of life under the ANC rule in eThekwini has reached an all-time low. As people across South Africa look forward to the holidays, Tongaat residents are planning protests instead of festivities.
The DA will not cease fighting for our residents to have better services.