Hon Chairperson, there is a complete collapse of basic service delivery in Qunu in the Eastern Cape. The district councillor for the area has confirmed that there was no water at home for the estimated 3 800 people who live there. All those people are forced to queue for water at selected points such as primary schools. Others go to the rivers and streams to fetch water.
Residents have to carry buckets of water to their homes to cook and to wash themselves and their clothes. According to a member of the royal family in the area the municipality in Qunu, the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality, makes special arrangements and lays on water for important events such as funerals, weddings and initiations. The chairman of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa, Contralesa, has admitted that it was common for the villages in the Qunu area to go without water for months, because the engine has broken, and there is a fault with the water pipes.
Cope urges the Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, to intervene immediately. This is where our world icon, Madiba, grew up until he reached the age of nine. It cannot be that the same situation of carrying water buckets exists 86 years after Madiba left Qunu. Twenty years into our new democracy this state of affairs is completely unacceptable.