In his response to questions today in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Deputy President, Paul Mashatile showed his complete disconnect with the reality of eThekwini residents experiencing an unprecedented disaster unfolding on their very doorsteps.
Asked whether he would intervene in the ANC-run metro’s refusal to co-operate with Section 154 administrators, Mashatile responded bizarrely by claiming there was no problem and that the Minister of CoGTA and the KZN Premier were attending to the issues facing the beleaguered city.
The Deputy President blamed the woes of the ANC-EFF run eThekwini solely on the April 2022 floods and offered the paltry R185 million from National Treasury as a meaningless intervention to a much larger problem.
To make matters worse, Pietermartizburg was confused with eThekwini as the Deputy President went down a rabbit hole explaining that the city had already been put under administration. While it is easy to confuse one ANC-run disaster zone with another, it is deeply worrying that the man charged with overseeing the “rapid intervention” unit within government cannot tell the difference between the two municipalities.
Therefore the DA is pleased that the Deputy President accepted the invitation extended by the DA to visit eThekwini. We will now write to his office to finalise the details of his visit. Should the Deputy President honour his promise, DA MPs and Councillors will show him the real pain residents and civil society endure on a daily basis.
The reality is that eThekwini municipality is experiencing a crisis primarily driven by the actions of the ANC with the support of their new coalition partners, the EFF.
Service delivery has ground to a halt, sewage flows along the streets, and water and electricity outages are now a daily occurrence. In response to this crisis, the ANC and EFF have so far budgeted R11 million for parties and increased the city manager’s salary by R1.9 million. This coalition of chaos has reduced eThekwini to a foul-smelling rubbish island in a sea of sewage.
There can be only one solution and that solution is Section 139 administration.
The DA will fight tirelessly for the residents of eThekwini until they achieve the standard of living they deserve.