Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen on Thursday said that a fundamental flaw of the African National Congress (ANC) was its failure to invest properly in infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.

Steenhuisen was referring to the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal that left more than 400 people dead, community displacement and widespread infrastructure damage.

In his weekly statement, he said local government should support town planners and engineers, and give them enough budget to build resilience into communities through proper housing planning and infrastructure to avoid catastrophes like in KwaZulu-Natal.

“It is the responsibility of a local government to make sure that its communities are shielded from the worst effects of such floods by making cities and towns flood-resilient,” said Steenhuisen.

He said this part of the job is unglamorous, budget-thirsty and thankless and added that an elected government should do it without expecting praise and plaudits.

The DA leader went on to blame the ANC government for spending public money on overpriced, ill-conceived vanity projects.

He said maintenance of infrastructure was just not a priority where the ANC governed, as there is “nothing in it for them”.

Steenhuisen said DA mayors in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Cape Town recently announced big investments in the maintenance and expansion of infrastructure.

The City of Johannesburg will be investing R2.8-billion over the next three financial years to improve the city’s water services infrastructure.

In Ekurhuleni, the City is planning a major expansion of its electricity backbone infrastructure which includes many kilometres of new cable and the refurbishment of equipment.

The City is also well ahead of its financial year target to maintain stormwater drains.

And in Cape Town the Mayor announced a capital expenditure budget of R8-billion, plus several billion more for the maintenance of existing infrastructure.

He said DA metros spend at least 6% of budget on infrastructure, while ANC metros spend just 2% to 3%.

“The recently-released Green Drop report shows that of South Africa’s 850 wastewater treatment systems, only 22 are in excellent condition with over half of these being in the Western Cape, said Steenhuisen.

He warned that if government cannot hold up its end of the deal, big employers will simply leave taking jobs with them.