Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbite in English and Afrikaans by Cllr Soret Viljoen.
Tswaing Local Municipality Executive Mayor Lydia Malwane and her Mayoral Committee have been missing in action whilst service delivery continues to decline.
Most of Delareyville has been without water since 21 September 2020, the DA and residents have sent numerous complaints to the Mayor, the Municipal Manager, Isaac Moruti and Speaker Barnie Lobelo, but the municipality simply shifted the blame onto Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality claiming the district is failing in its duties to provide water to residents.
Yesterday, the water crisis escalated to other parts of Tswaing which include areas such as Sannieshof, Ottosdal, Mofofutso, Middleton and other surrounding townships. The DA has reported this to the municipality but no action has been taken.
Streets in Sannieshof are overflowing with sewage causing an unbearable stench, there is only one honeysucker to render services to more than 400 households and businesses.
Refuse removal has come to a halt leaving the town and townships covered in rubbish and waste. Landfill sites are also not accessible to the community and the conditions of these sites pose a danger to the health of residents.
Roads in Delareyville, Sannieshof and Ottosdal are riddled with potholes and road users can barely use them as they have not been maintained or upgraded in years.
The local SAPS and residents have also complained about the lack of street lights and high mast lights in the town and surrounding areas which poses a safety concern to residents. The lack of lights leaves areas susceptible to criminal activities such as robberies and home burglaries.
In addition to all these concerns, Tswaing municipal workers are currently in their third week of an unprotected strike after the Municipal Manager advertised 127 vacancies. For the past two years, employees have been struggling to get the municipality to pay over deductions to third party contributions such as medical aid, UIF and pension funds.
Employees in the essential service departments are not compensated for being on standby and working overtime.
The municipality is under enormous financial strain and fails to pay salaries and creditors on time. The municipality owes Eskom more than R60 million and continues to fail to honour its payment agreement.
It is clear that under the leadership of Mayor Malwane and her Mayoral committee the municipality has been on the decline and there is no political will to turn this around leaving residents to continue to suffer without services.
The DA has been engaging with Premier Job Mokgoro who sent his Rapid Response Unit to Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality to restore bulk water to the areas as a matter of urgency.
The DA is working day and night to restore water supply to all affected areas and to ensure that service delivery is fully restored, however, the only way to rebuild Tswaing would be to get rid of the ANC and vote in a DA government.