As service delivery continues to collapse, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has reiterated our earlier requests to the Member of the Executive Council for Cooperative Governance, Bentley Vass, to launch an immediate intervention in the troubled Emthanjeni Local Municipality.
Criminal charges have been laid by myself and the Department of Water and Sanitation for the municipality’s persistent failure to provide water and sanitation services to residents of De Aar, Hanover, and Britstown. While investigations are underway, residents are still left without sufficient access to adequate water and sanitation services. In January 2025, for example, residents of the Joe Slovo area in De Aar were left without municipal water supply for three weeks and only received sporadic visits from a municipal water truck.
The collapse in municipal services takes a toll on local businesses, especially in the hospitality industry, as they cannot rely on basic water and sanitation services from the municipality. But as they equally cannot afford to keep paying for private options to deliver the services that are meant to be funded from their rates, they are forced to close their doors.
It is also becoming impossible for residents to pay municipal accounts. From March 2024 to March 2025, municipal accounts were only issued twice in twelve months, namely in August 2024 and November 2024. Despite the municipality’s legal obligations to provide regular and accurate municipal accounts, no other accounts were issued. Residents who asked for updates were simply told it was not available. The available accounts were also riddled with discrepancies, resulting in residents mistakenly being billed significant amounts.
The DA has requested that the Portfolio Committee on COGHSTA undertakes urgent oversight to the municipality. Although our request has been agreed upon by the committee in November last year, and despite our reminders, the chairperson has not committed to a specific date for this to be done.
We cannot sit idly by while residents are being deprived of their constitutional rights.