The Democratic Alliance (DA) will request the Northern Cape office of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to provide a progress report on its efforts to address long-standing river pollution in Magareng.
This comes after the Magareng Municipal Manager, Tumelo Thage, admitted that sewage is still being discharged into the Vaal River. This was exposed during the South African Human Rights Commission’s provincial inquiry into human rights violations, last week.
In addition to the ongoing contamination of the river, the municipality was also found to be violating residents’ rights to access to a reliable supply of clean water.
While massive water and sanitation related projects are underway with DWS, this does not absolve the municipality of its responsibilities.
The municipality, however, has willfully failed to restore water to residents of Windsorton Station for more than two years because it refuses to procure a stolen control box and replace a vandalized pump.
Trying to scapegoat the blame for the dire sewerage situation onto the theft and vandalism of sanitation pumps in Eskom supplied areas, is also not an excuse. Afterall, the municipality claims to have a R4 million security contract for the safeguarding of infrastructure at its four plants. It says it has established an overflow chamber to catch sewage overflow when the power is off. It also claims to have changed the design of its pumpstations to include sirens, to alert security guards when the pumps stop working.
That Magareng’s Blue and Green Drop status regressed to 26% and 5% respectively, with the municipality also categorised as “critical” by DWS, is also a serious indictment.
Violating people’s rights, while knowingly and deliberately failing to take the required remedial action, and then dodging accountability and withholding the full truth, is inexcusable and points to a complete lack of political will to do the right thing.
The DA is requesting an update from DWS regarding enforcement action underway against Magareng, for sewage contamination of the Vaal. Only firm consequence management, and a vote of no confidence at the polls, can turn this municipality around.