With the floods hitting the South Coast many areas have been without water and electricity, just when almost every community was getting their water back after not having it for weeks.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen visited the South Coast last Friday to hear from the communities about their water woes.
Steenhuisen started at Hibberdene where he held a meeting with the community, he then went to Albersville, Marburg, Port Edward and Port Shepstone.
He said reading about the situation in the newspapers is one thing but seeing the daily impact with one’s own eyes was different.
“This is a huge humanitarian disaster, the people here have been deprived of their constitutional right of access to water. This municipality is absolutely failing to deliver the basic need.”
He also visited the reservoir in Albersville and two homes where families had been without water for weeks.
Steenhuisen met with Jay Naidoo of Albersville and discussed how not having water had affected him and his family.
Naidoo said that, in his opinion, the problems have less to do with the politics but service delivery.
He also believes that Ugu Municipality should have been put under administration long ago because they can not deliver to their community.
Steenhuisen also visited Kanniamah Govender who lives alone in Marburg, she can barely walk, has had a stroke and lives off her meagre pension.
She says her electricity bill is about R1000 a month but she lives alone.
“When we had no water for weeks I told my pastor that I cannot go up to the mosque where the water tanker was. So he organised it for me to come to my house, parked outside the gate and the people helped me to carry water inside.”
She says she also cannot afford to pay for a full time helper, so has someone come in only twice a week.
Steenhuisen says it’s very ironic that the president is speaking about plans for a smart city.
“It’s going to have to be a very smart city to run without water.”
He said the municipality is not investing in the infrastructure.
“We will be asking our lawyers to look into instituting what is called a supervisory interdict.”
He says they will also be pushing at national parliament that Ugu be placed under administration and also push for legal action to be taken against Ugu.
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