People living in rural villages across the Eastern Cape are battling daily to secure water for their daily needs despite this right being enshrined in the constitution. They are forced to walk long distances to collect water from rivers, or drink water from animal troughs, because the municipal taps they have been provided are dry. This situation has been further aggravated by the excessive loadshedding, which disrupts pumping on water …


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Exactly 1 386 days have passed since the Democratic Alliance (DA) first opened a case on 10 July 2019 against the Chris Hani District Municipality’s then Municipal Manager, Dr Bhekisisa Methembu, for failing to act on raw sewage flowing into the Fish River and surrounding fresh water sources and the SAPS has apparently done nothing. Nearly four years later the problems persist, with collapsed infrastructure resulting in ongoing sewage spills …


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Former Executive Mayor Xola Pakati’s revelation that Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality’s (BCM) new municipal manager (MM), Mxolisi Yawa, was appointed at the behest of the ANC once again highlights how rife cadre deployment is in the Eastern Cape. Ironically, by trying to hang onto his job through implementing cadre deployment, he has inadvertently hung himself. By assisting with the deployment of cadres who clearly cannot deliver services to key positions …


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The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) must urgently pronounce on the ANC’s blatant abuse of power by summoning Metro and District Municipal Managers (MMs) to the recent ANC PEC lekgotla. SALGA needs to draw a line in the sand when it comes to this kind of blatant form of cadre deployment. Cadre deployment has played a significant role in the corruption, capture, and collapse of South Africa’s public sector. …


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Provincial departments are hastening the financial collapse of Eastern Cape municipalities, by failing to pay close to a billion rand owed for services rendered. At a time when our economy is in crisis, the cost of living is spiralling upwards and municipal collection rates have been decimated, it is utterly irresponsible of provincial departments to expect local government to carry millions of rands in debt. In response to a parliamentary …


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Serious questions must be asked of the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, who has given notice of his intent to expand the geographic area of the Amatola Water Board to cover the entire Eastern Cape. Minister Mchunu published his intention in a government gazette earlier this week, calling for comments within the next 60 days. Download gazette Appointing the Amatola Water Board to service the entire Eastern Cape …


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There is not a single permanent employee employed by the Koukamma municipality to address the municipality’s collapsing roads infrastructure, despite this being a vital aspect of the municipality’s core functions and responsibilities. The municipality should consider entering into Public Private Partnerships to enable them to secure the prerequisite skills to tackle the road maintenance and repair backlog. It will also be vital that adequate funding be put in place to …


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New COGTA MEC, Zolile Williams, has missed a golden opportunity to serve the people of Nelson Mandela Bay and bring stability back to the Metro, by choosing to put the interests of his party over those of the people. Instead of lambasting his own party councillors for their abhorrent behaviour on the day, the new COGTA MEC chose to classify a democratic process as “worrisome”. What appears to be worrisome …


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The collective debt owed to Eskom by Eastern Cape municipalities is spiralling out of control and is fast approaching the R3 billion mark. Money collected from residents and businesses for electricity that must be paid to Eskom must be ringfenced by municipalities. The failure to do so will result in collapsing electrical infrastructure and hardship to residents and businesses alike. The DA in the Eastern Cape will be writing to …


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The DA has seen first-hand how residents of the Eastern Cape have had their dignity stripped away from them by the wanton abuse of power and maladministration of local government. For the past two weeks myself and Shadow MEC for Finance, Retief Odendaal, have been visiting Eastern Cape local municipalities that have been identified as being in distress during a recent presentation to the National Portfolio Committee of Cooperative Governance …


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