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The DA has written to Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda to request that he convenes an urgent, mass public meeting as soon as possible, as the water crisis in parts of eThekwini is untenable (view letter here).

The mayor must now personally account to the public.

The DA has repeatedly called on the eThekwini Municipality leadership to present and implement a tangible turnaround strategy for its ailing Water and Sanitation (EWS) unit, to no avail. The city is failing in its mandate and is in serious need of rescuing.

Thousands of disgruntled residents are affected by this dysfunctional municipality.

Dozens of suburbs are experiencing prolonged outages for weeks on end with no firm commitment or clarity from EWS as to the cause and solutions. The communities of Trenance Park, Valleyview-Redcliffe, TeaParkgate, Ottawa, Riet Rivier, Dawncrest, Tea Estate, Phoenix, Umhlanga, Durban North and Tongaat have had to bear the brunt of the collapsing water network. We have heard for days now, that teams are investigating and trying to trace the fault. Some areas have been without water for 24 consecutive days. Water tankers have been wholly insufficient.

The fault lies solely with the ANC-EFF who run eThekwini. Numerous engagements with the city’s leadership led to one conclusion - the ANC is unfit to govern as they have no foresight, planning or political will to fix eThekwini as evident by innumerable unfilled reservoirs mainly due to leaks, burst pipes and ageing infrastructure.

Another colossal failure has been the lack of preventative maintenance in replacing the aging pipelines and infrastructure. The city’s infrastructural ageing goes back some 50 or 60 years while, since coming into power, the ANC has done nothing to improve this. To make matters worse today the ANC’s coalition partner in the city, the EFF, heads the most critical portfolio of Human Settlements and Infrastructure – the heart of service delivery failures. Things have in fact gotten worse with the EFF at the helm of a unit responsible for water, electricity, streetlights, roads, and transport.

The anger and outrage from residents is justified and Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda must face these communities in person.

We call on residents to support the DA's call for the dissolution of the eThekwini Municipal Council. Disgruntled residents must move towards replacing the current governing parties in eThekwini with a DA government. There is nothing else that can save eThekwini but a DA led council.

Join the fight for early elections in eThekwini because where the DA governs, we have turned failed Municipalities around.

Issued by Cllr Yogis Govender - DA eThekwini EXCO Member