Durban — KwaZulu-Natal DA leader Francois Rodgers said they were giving the IFP in the uThukela District Municipality 72 hours to submit a report on the failures and alleged looting of the R45 million Ezakheni water pump station.
Rodgers said this on Tuesday during a meeting with community members held at The Moth Club in Ladysmith.
He said should the IFP fail to table the report they would reconsider their support in the district.
He said they discovered that the six industrial pumps that were manufactured by a South African manufacturer called APE were removed in April and written off by a third party.
“APE monitored these pumps remotely via telemetry and confirmed that the pumps incurred no damage during the April 2022 floods. APE has also not been afforded the opportunity to inspect these pumps as provided for in the warrantee agreement,” said Rodgers.
Furthermore, he said the pumps that came at a cost to the taxpayer of R45m, had been removed after only being in service for five years, despite a decade-long anticipated life span.
“During April 2022, the town of Ladysmith and the Ezakheni water works extraction point was flooded. The governing IFP allowed a third party to clean up the pumps and they advised that the six industrial pumps were damaged. They were however not returned to the manufacturer, APE, for inspection and repair, but seemingly handed over to a third party that declared that they should be written off,” explained Rodgers.
He said the third party then proposed a make-shift plan with the installation of six lesser commercial-grade pumps as a stop-gap measure.
“The DA is very concerned that the motive to write off these assets can be driven by ulterior motives,” Rodgers said.
He claimed that there seemed to be very little leadership and political will to get the pumps repaired and fitted. The current extraction plant can only provide 25% of the required water demand. He said this meant that thousands of households and businesses in Ladysmith ran dry every day.
The DA currently props up the IFP in uThukela after the EFF withdrew its support.
Rodgers said they’ll put the IFP in uThukela on terms to have the Ezakheni Plant Extraction point fully restored to the original APE specifications within a reasonable time frame.
“The DA will continue to do all it can to do right by the people of uThukela,” he said.
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