Msunduzi Municipality’s ongoing failure to maintain its water infrastructure has reached a critical point, starkly impacting its residents in Ward 28. The issue is particularly acute, with almost daily reports of burst pipes.
The municipality’s inability to provide a consistent water supply has left the community, especially on significant cultural occasions such as key nights on the Hindu calendar, without the means to perform essential rituals, including bathing and preparing for prayer.
Learners have also not been spared, leaving them unable to fully prepare for schooling for prolonged periods. The deteriorated infrastructure exacerbates the problem, where a single burst pipe quickly escalates into multiple failures, offering residents no respite to even store water. The norm in Msunduzi has become a distressing cycle of going to bed without water and waking up to the same predicament.
From December 2023 into January 2024 alone, there were 30 reported incidents. This continuous disruption is not only frustrating but also imposes undue stress on the community. As a councillor, I find it exceedingly disheartening to witness allocated funds being diverted to non-essential projects such as building halls, while we lack a capital expenditure budget for crucial infrastructure maintenance. The absence of planned maintenance, due to financial mismanagement, directly affects our ability to provide basic services to our residents.
The leadership’s priorities are misplaced, favoring investments into soccer teams and fan parks over addressing the daily challenges faced by our community, including delays in refuse collection, sewer overflows, significant potholes, and prolonged outages of water and electricity. Despite these glaring deficiencies, our municipality’s leadership claims progress—a claim far removed from the reality experienced by our citizens.
It is time for the Msunduzi Municipality to confront its shortcomings and address the genuine needs of its residents. The current state of neglect and the evident lack of empathy for the community’s plight cannot continue. We must move beyond this ostrich syndrome that is crippling our city and acknowledge the urgent need for change. The DA will be taking this up with senior management at a council level.
The residents of Msunduzi deserve better, and it is the duty of those in power to deliver the essential services that are the foundation of a functioning, progressive municipality. The 2024 election is on our doorstep and the residents of Msunduzi will have the opportunity to vote for a provincial and national government that will put their needs first.