The battle over the DA’s water accountability billboard has escalated, with Mayor Cyril Xaba, City Manager Musa Mbhele and senior municipal official Ednick Msweli now serving the DA and me with court papers.
We are ready to defend our position in court on 15 October.
While the city’s leadership fights the DA over a billboard, thousands of eThekwini residents continue to fight for something far more important: water in their taps.
For years, eThekwini’s water infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate, leaving communities increasingly dependent on water tankers, which cost the city a staggering R815 million in the 2024/25 financial year alone.
With approximately 13,000 active leaks and an estimated 21 billion litres of water lost every month, the scale of this failure is staggering.
The city’s extraordinary water losses and reliance on costly water tankers demand urgent accountability, not attempts to silence those raising the alarm.
Our billboard was a call to action, not an accusation of criminal involvement.
The three officials featured on the billboard occupy the most senior positions of accountability for this crisis. They have the authority and responsibility to fix the infrastructure, restore reliable water supply and end the conditions that allow the water tanker mafia to flourish.
They have the power to stop the water tanker mafia. That is precisely why their faces appeared on the billboard.
Instead of spending time and resources fighting the DA in court, the city’s leadership should be fighting water losses, broken infrastructure and the exploitation of communities desperate for water.
The DA will defend our right to demand accountability from public officials. We will not be distracted from the real issue: the people of eThekwini deserve water in their taps, not permanent dependence on tankers.
On 4 November, residents have the opportunity to demand a different future.
Stop the water tanker mafia. Vote DA for water in your taps.