Maningi uwaphuze wena.
English:
...we must install prepaid and smart meters in the usage; appointment independent revenue collectors for municipalities; government wide campaign to encourage a culture of payment for municipal must be done; strict management of payment default with firm actions by government before the court process come to effect; fix the municipalities to ensure the sustainability of services and finances; and ring-fence the debts. Most of the municipalities' debts are no longer being serviced. We are then saying that we need to ring-fence the debt
and create a mechanism of settling the debt through religiously paying off the current debts. The Municipalities that are owed must be paid and they must also pay because they owe. The Department must give within a month from today a programmatic way of how to go back and bring back the commitment of payment.
But in the process we also say we agree with the department that we need to repair the infrastructure in order to quell the water that we are losing. We need to campaign to raise awareness about the high level of per capita. For instance, you find an old lady who is indigent using the size of water which is equivalent to a very rich person. It means there is something wrong in that particular water usage. So we must curtail that particular point. We also say that progress will not only help the department to grow, but it will also help to service people with water.
The Deputy Minister has spoken about the ground water usage, the boreholes and so forth. Some of us who come from Bushbuckridge know that borehole water can help a
lot. It is for that reason that we support the programme that the borehole system must be used.
In the innovation process we have seen consumers benefiting from the technologies deployed in the water treatment conservation. Yes, we know that. For instance, in Tshwane area there is water. Interjections.] The committee went to Tshwane and we spoke to the Tshwane Municipality. There is a programme of purifying water. Of course, out of the four water treatment processes only two are working. We are working on the second one.
In closing, the committee irrespective of political parties has agreed that we are going to monitor and oversight to see to it that the Ministers revert to us with a programme to implement it. Politicising water will not help you, but working together will make us have water for everybody. Thank you very much. [Applause.]