Chairperson, premiers, Mr President, delegates, we welcome today's engagement with the hon President. Co-operative governance is a constitutional principle to which the Western Cape province is fully committed.
As the President says, the Constitution spells out exactly what co- operative governance means. The NCOP, therefore, is the correct forum in which we can iron out differences that get in the way of these constitutional principles, and in this regard, Mr Chair, I have a few matters to raise with the President through you.
In the past month we've seen both the provincial government and the City of Cape Town being selectively targeted and harassed by the Minister for Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs over untested allegations of water cut-offs. Now, the President made much of the name of this Ministry, "Co-operative Governance", and he said it was not a cosmetic name change. Well, I don't know whether it is an ironic name change or hypocritical, because the Minister even threatened to strip the City of Cape Town and the provincial government of their powers over these untested allegations.
Subsequently we have received sworn affidavits from residents of Mitchells Plain that ANC activists had asked them to cut off their own water at the stop-cock, before the Minister's visit, as a deliberate political ploy to make it seem as though their water had been cut off, when this was not true.
The City of Cape Town does not cut off water. In the most extreme circumstances, when people have failed to respond to overdue bills for months and months, they may be put on the trickle system. But it is very easy for poor people to prevent this, even if they are seriously in arrears, by ensuring that they are placed on the City's indigency database.
The City then supplies a free water management device that ensures 450 free litres of water per day, which is the most generous allocation in the country, and fixes people's leaks for free. This has been an enormous success. Which other city offers this kind of service, including an efficient SMS hotline to report any water problems? In fact, the Western Cape has more homes with access to water than any other province - 91%; and more homes with electricity - 94%.
Another irony is that the vast majority of the DA-led municipalities are in the 58 top performing South African municipalities, according to the Minister's own Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs database.
That Minister's own database says we are all in the top 58, and yet he still wants to strip us of our powers! What kind of hypocrisy is the name of that department then? But the same Minister continues to target Cape Town to score party-political points, which is illegal and unconstitutional.
In fact, I have a whole list here, which I'm going to have to cut to save time, of examples of ANC cities and ANC provinces that the Minister should be investigating.
There are babies dying in hospitals and people dying in villages, all because of contaminated water; thousands and thousands of people, with just four water points. Why is the Minister not investigating these? The answer is that these things are happening in ANC-led provinces and that is why they're being covered up and the DA is being selectively targeted.
That is what's going on, and now the Minister is going to abuse Parliament as a public kangaroo court against Cape Town, backed up by his SMS campaign, calling on residents to give evidence to a so-called investigation of the City of Cape Town. This is a very transparent ploy and will come back to bite the Minister and his party.
This is the second time this year that the national government has selectively targeted Cape Town. Earlier this year, in the run-up to the general elections, the City of Cape Town was harassed about the new water management devices it is installing across the metro, including in our own homes. [Interjections.]