The Democratic Alliance (DA) will hold Sol Plaatje municipality accountable for its public commitment to submit its plans for the provision of immediate, emergency relief to residents of White City, Platfontein and Homevale who have been affected by sewerage for years, by Friday.
This comes as service delivery failures of Sol Plaatje and Dikgatlong municipalities yesterday came under the spotlight during the South African Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) provincial inquiry into the state of service delivery in the Northern Cape.
The DA has, over the years, laid complaints, provided updates and held meetings with the SAHRC in relation to the sewerage engulfed White City houses, the delays in comprehensively compensating homeowners who lost their houses, health and possessions to sewage, and whose lives were turned upside down by Kimberley’s worsening sewerage failures. We have also taken numerous steps to get local, provincial and national government to address the sewerage lake on the R31 outside Kimberley and fix the Homevale Waste Water Treatment Plant. Despite being fully aware of the suffering of communities, Sol Plaatje continues to ignore the plight of residents.
For years, we have also been fighting for service delivery for residents of Dikgatlong, who continue to face sewerage spills, water shortages and poor water quality, undriveable potholed roads, lack of refuse removal, power outages and more. A service delivery protest in 2022 and subsequent follow-ups with the municipality and provincial and national departments culminated in nothing. Despite spending more than R6,5 million on eight double cabs and three sedans earlier this year, and neglecting critically needed procurement of yellow fleet vehicles, Dikgatlong also still forks out around R300 000 to R400 000 per month on water tankering services.
We are glad that both Sol Plaatje and Dikgatlong have exposed their regression, increasing lack of competency and total absence of political will to fix their failures to the SAHRC, who accused them of ignoring the needs of communities and being uncaring and an embarrassment to their communities.
The DA is hopeful that the inquiry will place much needed pressure, not only on these municipalities but also on provincial leadership, to address the dire state of these local governments and to hold the administrations and councils accountable.
We further appreciate the commitment by Dr Henk Boshoff, the Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission, that he will follow through on this inquiry and that he will table his report in the legislature, have discussions with the MEC, table the report in parliament and ask the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to visit the Northern Cape.
Service delivery in the Northern Cape is at an all time low and the ANC government must be held accountable for this breakdown by the SAHRC and voters at the polls in 2026.