Chairperson, I rise to respond to the statement made by the DA around problems of pollution and contamination of our water resources, particularly in the area of Makhado.
I have said in this House before that there are municipalities that are struggling with the maintenance of infrastructure. We have intervened as a department. In terms of the allocations we received, we have R500 million that is to be invested in the refurbishment and upgrading of infrastructure. It is totally unacceptable that those municipalities that can afford to do this are not refurbishing or doing their operational maintenance.
So, we have decided, as a department, to be very strong in our regulatory function to the extent that we are going to have what we call an enforcement and compliance blitz week, from 24 to 28 November, during which we are going to go to all areas and all transgressors to issue them with directives and disconnect and break down structures that have been set up illegally - whether to steal water or divert water. We will accompany the police as they make arrests in cases where we have issued directives and no action has been taken by the transgressor.
We are going to take very serious steps from now onwards. We hope that those few municipalities - because there are very few areas that are noncompliant - will be assisted to comply. But in areas where they can afford to refurbish and upgrade infrastructure, we will definitely take serious action.
Regarding the toilet structures that have not been built correctly, I think we have to put this into context and say that having given 10 million more South Africans access to sanitation, some margin of error cannot be excluded. There are some cases and some areas that we are aware of where there has been substandard workmanship. But that cannot be placed at the door of the ANC, which has sought to deliver both water and sanitation to many more millions of people. In this case, whoever the contractor is must be brought to book to ensure that the shoddy workmanship is repaired. But if hon members want to join us throughout this enforcement blitz week, they can liaise with the portfolio committee, whose chair has been invited to these activities. Thank you, Chair. [Applause.]