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The DA in Emfuleni shares the immense frustration of residents of Ward 24 and Ward 40, Zone 6, of the Emfuleni Local Municipality who, due to the failures of the ANC in government, have been left without water for more than a year – a fundamental and gross violation of human rights and dignity.

The DA in Emfuleni has written to the Executive Mayor, ANC Cllr Sipho Radebe, as well as the acting Municipal Manager, Mr Nompi Ntuli, to urgently request a clear plan of action with timeframes to address the water outages in these areas. Thus far, no satisfactory responses have been forthcoming, showing the contempt with which the Emfuleni government holds its residents.

These prolonged water outages put lives and livelihoods at risk. Many residents are forced to rely on water dripping from household pipes at night, while others are forced to use the nearby running sewage from infrastructure leakages to do laundry.

The tragic indignity these residents endure is a disgrace. The ANC should be ashamed of what its incompetence is forcing people to endure.

The failure by the ANC in government to address this matter for such a long time again exposes what South Africans have come to understand: the ANC does not care about the people of our country and wants government power to enrich themselves rather than make life better for residents.

The decline in basic service delivery across the Emfuleni Local Municipality and the general inability to address these issues quickly are of grave concern and detrimental to the residents. This type of indignity cannot be accepted, thus we need an urgent and workable plan of action with the necessary timeframe for when residents can expect a solution to this crisis.

The DA calls for an urgent response from the Executive Mayor to the numerous attempts by DA councillors to address this matter for residents. If the Executive Mayor is somehow ignorant of where these wards are or the circumstances their inhabitants are forced to endure, councillors of the DA in Emfuleni is willing to accompany him personally to these wards where residents suffer this indignity of his government’s failures.

The DA in Emfuleni will continue applying pressure on this failing ANC-led local government to improve service delivery because the residents of Emfuleni deserve better.

Issued by Cllr Dady Mollo - DA Emfuleni Central Constituency Political Head