Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, I am new to the Water and Sanitation portfolio. However, these issues are not new to me, nor are they new to the people. I live among the poorest of the poor and I know their daily struggles. Images of women carrying buckets of water on their heads, walking long distances, are all too vivid in my mind. Consequently, I will not theorise about their daily challenges and struggles. However, the question I have is this: What does this budget have for these people? I know that the total for 2014-15 is over R12 billion, which increases to over R17 billion for the 2016-17 financial year. These figures will only be meaningful to the people once they have been translated into tangible projects aimed at changing people's lives for the better, otherwise the much acclaimed "better life for all" will remain an empty slogan.
Let me cite two examples to show how the department has failed in many instances to meet its obligations. Firstly, the Shemula Water Scheme in the Umkhanyakude District has become dysfunctional. The people in the area have not received any water from it for over five years now. Can we imagine what would happen in an urban setting if people did not have water in their households for a period of five years? They would definitely make that area ungovernable. I am not advocating anarchy here but the question remains: Why does the department treat people in the rural areas with such disdain?
While we note that the amount of R603 million, which was introduced in the 2013-14 budget for the municipal water and infrastructure grant to eradicate backlogs in water and sanitation, will increase to R2,8 billion in the 2016-17 financial year, these budgetary increases will be meaningless to the people without strong leadership and skilled personnel at municipal level.
The second example of where sanitation went wrong is in the one-room houses built in Mbazwana under UMhlabuyalingana Local Municipality. The toilets, which have nonworking septic tanks, are inside these one-room houses. The stench is more than that of the pigs on one of the farms in the North West province. Thank you. [Time expired.]