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Early this year Water and Sanitation Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu promised Qwaqwa residents that a solution to their water problems was in sight. She promised that 5 000 water tanks (Jojo tanks) would be delivered and equipped, so that residents could have water available.

What has since happened is that very few of these tanks have been fitted with a stand or taps. Now unusable tanks are visible over Qwaqwa.

Water tankers transporting water are still delayed as each household has to fill containers from the tanker when it visits the community. It would be much faster for the tanker to pump water directly into the tank and proceed to the next area. More communities could be helped every day.

Minister Sisulu promised that Sedibeng Water would be the implementing agent for her solutions to Qwaqwa's water problems. However by June 2020 Sedibeng Water had not presented a Service Level Agreement on what they were going to do. It is clear that these plans are not being followed through, at the costs of the residents.

The same applies to Councilor Crockett who in October 2019 received a massive salary hike to head a Water Crisis Committee. She has yet to present her terms of reference (job description) or present any reports on her duties.

Water for the tankers is abstracted from two points. With a maximum of two tankers at a time. Yet Maluti-a-Phofung (MaP) Water reports that they have "concerns ... management and monitoring of water trucks per day, registration of water loads deliveries, and list of owner of the trucks " How can this be?

A call center for water issues was going to be established, R1.3m was spent on in and yet it is not in operation. Now the municipality has run out of money and needs to reduce the private water tankers used to transport water. There are still 25 tankers from Minister Sisulu, but the private ones will drop from 78 to 20.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is horrified by this continuing gross mismanagement. In December we submitted a complaint of possible corruption of funds earmarked for water provision, to the Public Protector in Bloemfontein. They have recently asked for more information, which we supplied. We submitted a complaint to the Human Rights Commission in January.

On the 7th of July Minister Sisulu is due to appear before the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament. The DA will ensure that she is held accountable for this shocking state of affairs.

This mismanagement and possible corruption is so unnecessary. We can only urge voters to use their votes wisely next year.

Issued by The DA