Please find attached soundbite in English by Soret Viljoen.
- Thousands of residents in Delareyville, Sannieshof and Ottosdal were left without water and electricity following severe weather and prolonged infrastructure failures.
- An elderly frail-care facility in Delareyville was reportedly left without water and electricity for three days.
- ANC-run Tswaing continues to neglect critical infrastructure while spending money on costly luxury vehicles for political office-bearers.
Thousands of residents across Delareyville, Sannieshof and Ottosdal have once again been left to fend for themselves after severe weather caused widespread electricity and water disruptions.
The municipality has only one available cherry picker for all three towns, leaving residents facing fallen trees, cables and dangerous swinging electricity poles. In some cases, residents had to clear roads and secure poles themselves.
On Saturday, 5 September, I urgently requested that Acting Municipal Manager Cyril Lobakeng and senior technical officials rent additional cherry pickers to address the crisis. They didn’t deem it necessary.
The consequences were devastating. An old-age home in Delareyville, including residents in frail care, was left without water and electricity for three days.
This is not simply a weather problem. It is the result of years of ANC mismanagement, poor maintenance and failure to prioritise basic services. Each town previously had its own cherry picker, but the municipality failed to replace them as they became unusable, despite repeated calls from us.
While residents are expected to endure prolonged outages and businesses suffer losses, the municipality continues to spend thousands of rands on rented luxury vehicles for the Mayor and Speaker. The ANC-run municipality cannot claim there is no money while failing to prioritise the equipment needed to keep communities safe and services running.
Tswaing has again been placed under Section 139(5)(a) and (c) intervention, yet residents continue to experience the same failures.
We will write to Provincial Executive Representative Mr Lucky Mosala demanding immediate intervention to restore services, provide adequate emergency equipment, repair critical electricity infrastructure and ensure proper disaster preparedness.
Our Working for All Manifesto commits us to competent local government that gets the basics right, maintains infrastructure and spends public money responsibly.
Tswaing residents deserve a government that puts basic services before political comfort. They deserve government that works for all.