The Democratic Alliance (DA) wrote to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, on 17 October 2019 to request that she urgently Gazette a national drought disaster.
Unsurprisingly, a week has now passed and there has been no response from this ‘Missing Minister’. This is revealing of Minister Dlamini–Zuma’s complete lack of commitment to resolving the issue of the drought which has ravaged large parts of the country.
The DA will once again write to the Minister, this time calling on her to make an urgent Executive statement in Parliament on the progress that has been made in addressing the drought and to implore on her to acknowledge the magnitude of the problem caused by the drought on agriculture and the rural economy.
The Minister must tell Parliament and the nation about the steps taken by the various municipalities and government to enact drought management interventions to lessen the damage caused by drought conditions.
Droughts across the country have reached disaster levels and are fast becoming one of the biggest challenges facing our country, as they put a massive strain in South Africa’s water infrastructure.
When water infrastructure is strained, it affects people’s lives, the economy and putting immense pressure on food security.
That is why the DA made an urgent request to Minister Dlamini, in terms of Section 27 of the Disaster Management Act, to declare a national disaster as the existing contingency arrangements by the government have not adequately addressed the drought.
The Minister’s indifference has also ensured that in many towns the taps have run dry, farmers are unable to irrigate their land and feed their livestock, and small business owners are unable to continue with their daily operations. This will have a severe impact on provincial economies and ultimately our stagnant national economy.