Ahead of the upcoming local government elections, Democratic Alliance (DA) Johannesburg mayoral candidate Helen Zille assured Polity on Friday that ending corruption is one of her priorities for the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).

Zille was speaking in Johannesburg, during a media meet and greet, where she expressed confidence that her party would “do good” in the CoJ.

“We will do our best. We will make the issues the issue, and we will appeal to people who want solutions,” she stated.

Earlier this week the party accused African National Congress-led municipalities and Rand Water of collapsing the Gauteng water system, threatening to take legal action against Johannesburg Water and Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina.

This follows weeks of dry taps around the province, exacerbated by infrastructure failure, supply throttling and recent labour issues at Joburg Water.

The party is demanding that Majodina immediately instruct Rand Water to regularly and timeously communicate directly with the public and not through metros.

The DA on Wednesday also called for the water crisis to be declared a national state of disaster to unlock emergency funding and resources.

DA Water and Sanitation spokesperson Stephen Moore cautioned that there needed to be clear rules with such funding.

“…this cannot be a blank check or an avenue for corruption, it cannot be a bailout for general municipal cash flow. Any support must be ring-fenced for stabilisation and non-revenue water reduction, with strict reporting and measurable outputs. Leak repair capacity, pressure management and pipe replacement are the key things…,” he said.

Zille said the DA would head to court to ensure that people’s constitutional rights were realised.

She said a DA leadership would ring-fence the money for maintenance of water infrastructure and for new investment.

The party will also ensure that there are public-private partnerships to help catch up with the backlog.

With regards to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s newly announced National Water Crisis Committee, Zille said she would “wait and see” if any good results came from it.

“…I know that President Ramaphosa loves to have a lot of committees and task teams and other things, and I will wait and see,” she said.

During his State of the Nation Address Ramaphosa declared the water crisis a national priority, announcing the establishment of the National Water Crisis Committee aimed at  addressing the challenges.

Ramaphosa will chair this committee.