She said the ANC was disappointed with the DA’s “half-hearted cooperation” with the provincial and national government’s attempts to deal with the outbreak. Bhengu-Motsiri lambasted the opposition for “defensive, buck-passing and finger-pointing exercises without accepting any responsibility”.
READ: Cholera outbreak: 10-year-old girl among those baptised and later tested positive
The DA has, however, rejected the allegations levelled against its governance. It said in a statement that South Africa is facing a possible national cholera outbreak, as opposed to a localised issue in Tshwane.
“Incidences of cholera have also been reported in the Free State and Limpopo, confirming that the outbreak in Tshwane is not the result of a lapse of service delivery from a municipality that has been in government for two months. It is the result of years and years of national government neglect and previous local government regimes which bankrupted metros to the point of almost having to be placed under administration,” said DA Shadow Minister of Water and Sanitation Leon Basson.
He argued that ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and the party were deliberately trying to mislead the public with propaganda on how the crisis is directly linked to the DA-led multiparty coalition in Tshwane while ignoring the history of the governing party’s neglect.
“This cannot be more clearly evidenced than in a parliamentary reply from the minister of water and sanitation this month, which revealed that water infrastructure backlogs will cost R89.9 billion per annum over 10 years, with 3 698 074 kilolitres of water lost every single day due to infrastructure failure and leakages. This costs South Africa R250 million every single year,” Basson added.
.
