‘DA turns blind eye to poor’, Tshwane ANC charges

The ANC in Tshwane yesterday accused the DA of overdelivery of services in affluent, white areas, while turning a blind eye to the water problems of the people of Hammanskraal, Rooiwal, Stinkwater and Bronkhorstspruit.

Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga, in turn, dismissed the allegations, accusing the ANC of “clutching at straws”.

“The DA are installing CCTV cameras in Waterkloof Ridge where the whites are living. They are doing nothing where it concerns black people,” Jane Makgato, shadow MMC for utility and infrastructure, said.

Speaking at a press briefing at Tshwane House about the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant (RWWTP), Makgato said the DA was not concerned that faeces continues to spill into the Apies River, polluting the water and nearby farmlands.

She said the ANC was dissatisfied with the “deplorable state of our RWWTP and the lack of action from MMC for utility and infrastructure Darryl Moss, who was mostly nowhere to be found”.

Makgato said they had highlighted the situation around RWWTP, where the DA-led administration allegedly continues to mismanage the plant.

Makgato said people in Bronkhorstspruit and Hammanskraal were forced to buy water, while the city continues to bill them for water they cannot use.

“I went to the doctor and he said I must not drink the water. There are many people who called and said they have stomach bugs, but we cannot concretely say it is the water,” Makgato said.

The ANC, however, admitted that the Rooiwal issue first reared its head in 2006, when the ANC was in power in Tshwane.

ANC councillor Sephiwe Montlha said it was only in 2013 that the ANC put infrastructure in place at Rooiwal, but nothing had happened since then.

“In 2016, there was a report tabled that there are problems that come from Rooiwal.

“A feasibility study was done and there was also the issue of cable theft. When the DA came into power in 2016, the report for Rooiwal was tabled, but the DA removed it ,” Montlha said.

The ANC accused the DA of not communicating with them on the Rooiwal issue. Montlha said they would use the processes within the city but if the DA failed to respond, they would turn to the public protector.

Montlha said residents in Stinkwater complain that after 5pm, their water becomes dirty and it “looks horrible”.

“The mayor committed R2 billion in a meeting in September last year, when he claimed the spillages were due to the cable theft, but they are doing nothing about it,” Makgato added.

Msimanga said the ANC’s accusations were “simply not true”.

“Our last budget was over 60% pro-poor,” he said.

“They are clutching at straws and must crunch the numbers of the budget that was supported unanimously by council for the first time in 17 years. That includes the ANC.

“If they thought it was skewed in favour of higher income areas, it is for them to explain why they supported it and now, bizarrely, criticise it.”

– news@citizen.co.za

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