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In the midst of the humanitarian crisis in QwaQwa where 240 000 people have no water supply, and where at least 50 tankers must deliver water daily to communities in 29 wards, the appointed Chairperson of the QwaQwa Water Crisis Committee, Mary Crockett, has stopped a privately-run orphanage from drilling a borehole. The orphanage, built on private land, has obtained private funding to install the borehole. The intention being to help alleviate the water crisis in the area.

It is clear that Cllr Crockett has no idea what her role is, or where her authority stops. The Section 79 Committee was established to provide oversight over the disaster mitigation activities, and to monitor the officials and entities engaged in these activities. She has now threatened the orphanage that funding must go through her, and she will decide where the borehole will be drilled. This inherent abuse of power cannot be tolerated. Cllr Crockett has also on occasion installed herself in the operational office which must direct the tankers and water deliveries, ignoring the prior arranged schedules and instructing tankers to go to areas she deems worthy.

In terms of Section 103 of the Municipal Finance Management Act, no councillor may interfere in the administration, and her instruction that the funding should go through her would be an offence in terms of Section 173, and which potentially carries a prison sentence of five years.

By her own admission, Cllr Crockett has stated that she ‘does not understand the technical stuff’, which directly compromises her appointment as Chairperson of this Committee, and has now taken it upon herself to act as ‘Director of Operations’.

Meanwhile the disaster response from the ANC-led municipality, and government, has been appalling. While the Constitution demands that every person must receive 25 litres of water per day, we see some communities only receiving tanker deliveries every 3 weeks, and the current rate of delivery amounts to 4,5 litres per day. In acts of desperation, individuals, schools and organisations throughout QwaQwa, who can afford it, are drilling boreholes.

It is clear that the ANC government are wholly incapable of dealing with this humanitarian disaster in QwaQwa. Political interference brought about the collapse of the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality, and it appears that nothing has been learned.

The DA have lodged complaints with the Public Protector, and with the SAHRC about the situation, and will continue to daily monitor the disaster response. To date, several DA councillors and activists have received threats, of which one councillor was even endangered with a knife, but we will not be deterred in exposing the ANC mismanagement of this water crisis.

For more information, interested stakeholders may contact the manager of the orphanage, Me Moabi on 076 748 0551, or alternatively the elder in the church Mr Tshabalala on 073 945 9068.

Issued by DA