The DA in eThekwini has filed a motion calling for the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to investigate the feasibility of the reprioritisation of the budget, so that funds are allocated to the eThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS) and electricity clusters (view motion here).
This as the DA has reliably learnt that the municipality’s water department has exhausted all the funds that were budgeted for water repairs, leaving the city with no capacity to address the ongoing water crisis.
This has resulted in a halt of work by independent contractors, while the plumbers employed directly by the city can only attend to repairs during business hours. This situation has caused a massive backlog, with residents bearing the brunt of the inefficiency.
The municipality is losing hundreds of thousands of rands every day due to these unaddressed leaks, while residents endure water shortages and poor service delivery. With over 50% of water in the city unaccounted for, one would expect that fixing water leaks would be a top priority to conserve resources. However, the current administration has failed to address this critical issue.
Councillor Mdu Nkosi, the chairperson of the Trading Services Committee from the IFP, is yet to make any public statement to address the concerns, while the city continues to lose both water and money every second.
The DA is appalled by the catastrophic leadership failures in eThekwini as residents are left to suffer from a growing water crisis. There is a significant backlog of unresolved water leaks and broken water meters, some of which have been reported for over 20 days, with no action being taken.
This crisis is just one example of how the ANC, IFP, and EFF coalition of corruption is systematically collapsing eThekwini Municipality.
The DA calls on the leadership to prioritise the needs of residents, restore accountability, and take immediate action to fix the water infrastructure issues in the city.