DA condemns Msunduzi Municipality’s gross management failures leaving wards dry for weeks
By Cllr Sibusiso Chonco – DA Ward Councillor
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Msunduzi Municipality strongly condemns the shocking lack of accountability and proactive leadership by municipal management, which has left residents of Wards 17, 18, and 41 without water for over two weeks.
While the recent municipal employee strike has been suspended, residents continue to suffer a severe water outage. This crisis has now escalated and frustrated residents from Imbali Phases 1, 2, 3, 4, and Unit 14 have blocked the roads in protest. This directly forced the critical Empilwenhle Clinic to close its doors, cutting off essential healthcare to the vulnerable.
For days, municipal water officials went missing in action, ignoring desperate calls for answers. It was only yesterday, through intense DA pressure, that a water manager revealed the delay is due to Eskom failing to repair the power supply to the pump station. Following this revelation, we requested and obtained reference number 1184636215 from the water manager to bypass municipal roadblocks and engage Eskom directly. After our swift follow-up, Eskom has assured us that electricity will be restored soon. It is entirely unacceptable that municipal officials sat on their hands for days, blaming Eskom, instead of driving less than 20 kilometres to the Eskom offices to demand a resolution. This is a clear failure of basic management.
The DA will continue to monitor the situation closely until every tap runs clean water again, and we will hold failing officials accountable for abandoning our communities.