Durban - The department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has set up a task team led by Cogta MEC Sipho Hlomuka to fix Ugu District Municipality’s water crisis, which has seen residents’ taps run dry for extended periods of time in recent months.
The water outages have also had a destructive impact on businesses, especially those in the tourism sector, which are losing customers as the battle to rebuild after the hard Covid-19 lockdown.
Cogta said yesterday that it was working with the municipality and the police to combat the vandalism and suspected sabotage that had largely been blamed for the ongoing crisis. The municipality had previously alleged that sabotage, believed to be carried out by workers or contractors looking to create work for themselves, was a possible cause of the outages.
Cogta spokesperson Senzo Mzila said a technical team would focus on the infrastructure, while the police would deal with suspected incidents of sabotage.
“Law enforcement agencies are working together with the municipality to address the issues of safety for water infrastructure. Residents are urged to report thos who damage infrastructure to the police,” he said.
Premier Sihle Zikalala’s spokesperson, Lennox Mabaso, said yesterday that police crime intelligence units would investigate and arrest the perpetrators.
“The issue of water in Ugu is serious. He has requested that Cogta step in immediately, and they will rope in the Department of Water and Sanitation.
“We are learning that there are deliberate acts of vandalism. It is not just an issue of a shortage. The MEC for the Department of Community Safety and Liaison, on the enforcement side, will use crime intelligence operations to uncover those who are sabotaging infrastructure,” he said.
The announcement follows residents’ demands in a petition last week that called for the provincial government to step in.
South Coast residents Rheiner and Vanessa le Roux started the petition, which by yesterday had garnered 1 754 signatures. They aim to collect at least 2 500 signatures.
Their efforts come after weeks of outages. The Mercury reported last week that the area had been without water for 17 days.
The Le Rouxs could not be reached for comment yesterday, but said in a statement: “If this is indeed the product of sabotage, then this is an act of urban terrorism and the military should intervene. The water crisis on the South Coast is steeped in political schemes with no regard for the public and the citizens of South Africa.”
Businesses in the tourism sector said they were spending a small fortune to ensure that they had a reliable water supply.
In a statement posted on the petition website, business owners said: “We have been residing here on the coast for six years now, and every single year, multiple times per year - the water supply to the public (including hospitals) are (sic) switched off by Ugu.
“The reasons they provide range anywhere from ’sabotage’ to ’burst pipes’, and these same excuses are used year after year. No permanent solutions are provided by the Ugu Municipality or the South African government, who are well aware of the dire state of the South Coast,” the businesses said.
They added that access to water was a human right that the municipality had violated with “no repercussions”.
“Meantime, the residents suffer, and especially during this time of the Covid outbreak, this poses a great health risk,” they said.
Many businesses also fear that further water outages will exacerbate their struggle to survive following the impact of the hard lockdown.
A guest house owner who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation said it was becoming impossible to operate.
“It is impossible to conduct business, never mind tourism accommodation like this, and now no one wants to buy our business. We are stuck in this failing environment,” she said.
The Mercury