Today the DA Limpopo Premier Candidate, Jacques Smalle, conducted an oversight inspection in the villiages of Mapanyeni, Mnyangani and Vuhhli in Giyani. He was accompanied by DA Team One South Africa Corruption Spokesperson, Phumzile Van Damme.
After witnessing first hand the devastation caused by the failing ANC’s failed R3 billion water project, it is clear that Giyani must be declared a national disaster area.
Left: Jacques Smalle and Phumzile Van Damme engaging with the community of Giyani; Centre: One of the abandoned and incomplete water projects in Mapayeni village in Giyani; Right: Phumzile Van Damme being interviewed by the media in Giyani.
Please click here for an Afrikaans soundbite by Jacques Smalle and here for an English soundbite by Phumzile Van Damme.
“During our oversight inspection we saw how residents had to travel 5km in the scorching heat to get contaminated water – the only source of water that’s accessible to residents. They have been stripped of their dignity and risk their lives by drinking dirty water” says Smalle.
The area has been without water for the past 8 years and the water project, launched in 2014, has brought no relief whatsoever. What’s more is the municipality does not deliver water to these villages.
Thus far, the project has cost the taxpayer more than R3 billion and still 50 villages are left without clean drinking water. Allegations of corruption and irregular expenditure plagued the project from the start and it’s clear the Department of Water and Sanitation has failed the people of Giyani.
“We are here today to witness the effects of corruption by the failing ANC. It is not good enough to sit in Parliament and only fight corruption from the benches. We have to be on the ground and witness and experience the conditions that people live in on a daily basis because of the rampant corruption of the failing ANC” says Van Damme.
The DA has a 3-step action plan for the Giyani area:
- Declare the area a natural disaster
In terms of section 27 of the Disaster Management Act the Minister may “declare a national state of disaster if existing legislation and contingency arrangements do not adequately provide for the national executive to deal effectively with the disaster”.
We believe the Department’s track record is proof that they are unable to “effectively deal with the disaster”. Recently Parliament heard how finances were not improving and that the Department would not be able to carry out 46% of its projects this year.
Giyani is another example of the ANC government’s failure to provide basic services to citizens and clearly the cash-strapped, and corruption-ridden Department is not able to provide pay contractors to complete the project. Declaring the area a disaster zone will enable government to channel additional funds to this area.
This will also enable government to complete the 52km pipeline from Nandoni Dam to the Nsami Dam. The pipeline would offer a permanent solution to Giyani’s water woes which were also exacerbated by periodic droughts in the region.
- The municipality must take urgent interim measures
The Greater Giyani Municipality should immediately provide water trucks and storage tanks with clean water for the residents, so they don’t have to walk kilometres to access water. If the area has proper underground resources boreholes should be drilled to provide residents with much-needed water.
- Prosecute those implicated in corruption
The forensic report that implicates Greater Giyani Municipality’s suspended CFO, Hitler Maluleke and the Technical Director, Patience Mathebula, in financial and tender irregularities, should be used to prosecute the implicated.
The forensic investigation was prompted by allegations that the duo ‘invested’ R158 million of municipal funds with the controversial VBS Mutual Bank, including tender irregularities. This is another example of the failing ANC protecting its own who’s implicated in corruption.
Says Smalle: “When witnessing the effects of grand-scale corruption such as this, one is reminded that the lives of millions of South Africans are affected by corruption every day. People are suffering and they realise that they have been abandoned by the uncaring, failing ANC. The DA will do everything in its power to assist the people of Giyani and to get the pipeline completed once and for all”.
