SECUNDA – The Democratic Alliance (DA) is dissatisfied that motions submitted by their councillors were referred back in a recent council meeting.
Some of these included a motion that was submitted by Ms Ciska Jordaan, DA caucus leader, to expedite the process of relinquishing the municipality’s electricity distribution license and handing the function back to Eskom.
Another motion was submitted by former councillor, Ms Marietjie Fourie, regarding the continuous irregular removal of refuse.
The party said although these motions were intended to enforce speedy delivery of services and good
financial governance, they were continuously brushed off by the ANC-led executive and responded to negatively.
Ms Jordaan said this is despite the municipality being one of the highest debtors to Eskom and also being one of the top 10 municipalities with exorbitant numbers of irregular and wasteful expenditure in the country.
“Regardless of more than a R1-billion debt towards Eskom, the council opted to establish five additional impractical committees, all in only one meeting.
“To the astonishment of the DA, who opposed the establishment of these committees, the ANC-led council appointed five additional chairpersons to these committees.
“Chairpersons of such committees receive a significant salary in comparison to the average part-time councillor.
“To no surprise, the uncaring ANC has once again chosen to promote comrades unto the gravy train rather than taking serious cognisance of the state of affairs in the debt-ridden GMM.
“The DA will continue to drive the motions that we have submitted to the council, with the utmost attempt to hold the ANC accountable. We hope that the residents will realise this when they step into the voting booth in 2021.”
The party said residents in various areas of GMM have been frustrated by the interrupted and inconsistent water supply from October last year.
Apart from Bethal and eMzinoni, which has been labelled by its communities as an area with a water crisis, towns such as eMbalenhle, Lebohang, Evander, Kinross and Eendracht are also hampered by the same problem.
Ms Jordaan said they are satisfied that the construction of a storage tank and resealing of a leaking reservoir in Bethal will be prioritised in the Social and Labour Plan Investment Project for the third quarter of the current financial year.
She said the municipality loses a large percentage of the bulk water that it buys from Rand Water monthly, due to lack of maintenance on its existing infrastructure.
Water leaks and pipe bursts are a common occurrence all over GMM, causing residents to be without water for days or weeks.
“Rand Water has been reducing the pressure to GMM by 20 per cent, causing another range of problems that technical workers continuously need to attend to without any materials at hand.
“Water is not only a basic need, but also a human right, which this municipality infringes upon every time a resident is left with a dry tap.”
The ANC was not available for comment.
