Madam Deputy Speaker, this government is quick to congratulate itself over the roll-out of much needed basic services. In the recent report on universal household access to basic services, for example, the Fezile Dabi District Municipality in Northern Free State was listed as having 100% access to basic water provision. That means having a tap no further that 200 m from every home, but that 100% figure hides a different reality.
Last week I visited the small town of Steynsrus in the Moqhaka municipality which is part of Fezile Dabi District Municipality. There I found a town which had had no water in its taps for a month. That was because the town's storage dam had run dry. About a year ago the council was warned that the dam was going to fail because the wall was not being maintained. The council did nothing. The rains came last summer and the dam wall failed. Most of the water was lost. The province came in and fixed the wall, but the water soon ran out. The town was unable to pump from the river or from boreholes because all of its five pumps were broken. So water was trucked in from the municipal centre at Kroonstad some 50 km away.
That coincided with the water crisis in Kroonstad. We were told that the town ran out of money and could not afford chemicals to purify the water. For two weeks the water was not treated. Predictably, more than 1 000 people in Kroonstad and some 200 in Steynsrus suffered from diarrhoea. That should not be a surprise. The 2010 Blue Drop Report said, "It is sincerely unfortunate that three water service authorities in the Free State province have shown no commitment towards their drinking water quality management responsibilities." The department therefore cannot have any confidence in the manner tap water quality has been managed, and one of those three municipalities was Moqhaka.
So, why can't this municipality afford to clean its water? Here are some clues: The mayor bought a Mercedes E200 at a cost of R471 000 without proper authorisation; there was a purchase earlier this year of R150 000 for a desk and a wall unit by the municipal manager; and recently, the council got quotes for a new intercom system. It rejected the quotes for R99 000 and accepted the one for R350 000.
The reasons may be different, but the failure is the same in the Blouberg Municipality in Limpopo. A water scheme for the 5 000-strong Indemark community was installed by the local ANC council just before the last local elections. It was installed and ticked off, but it never worked. The DA and local farmers have now built a system to deliver free water for the people.
It doesn't just happen in deep rural areas. Water quality in Madibeng Municipality near Brits has collapsed. The municipality was placed under administration in March after mismanagement of projects and allegations of corruption. Then Minister Sonjica was there recently, and she said, "We hope to give some type of Christmas present by refurbishing these treatment plants." A Christmas present? The Minister should remember that clean water is a right. It's not a present from government, or worse, the ruling party. It comes from the tax money of every single South African citizen, whether that tax is paid as income tax or VAT.
Our people have a right to basic services, real and continuing basic service delivery, not just projects that are built and look good on a report and then collapse. Projects cannot simply be installed and walked away from; for people who cannot afford to buy bottled water, this kind of failure can be fatal.
This government needs to have a good hard look at the real reasons for this failure to maintain projects. Face facts: The cadre deployment policy, which is the backbone of the national democratic revolution, is a disaster. The wrong people get put in the wrong jobs. When they fail, as they often do, they are not fired; they are protected, excused and redeployed and the people who suffer are the poorest of the poor. Thank you. [Applause.]