Hon Minister, Ugu district municipality in KwaZulu-Natal - which is facing near financial collapse - has been struggling to provide water to all of its villages for almost four years. They regularly default on paying their creditors, and have passed two consecutive unfunded annual budgets.
The DA has, for the last three years, called on the KwaZulu- Natal MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to put Ugu under administration in terms of section 139 of the Constitution. These calls have fallen on deaf ears.
Can the hon Minister please provide us with some timelines by which the villages of Ugu can finally expect to receive clean, consistent, piped, potable water, given that they are currently receiving so much attention on account of your latest response?
The MINISTER OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, WATER AND SANITATION: I think
the same answer would be given to you which I ended off. The people whom we have contracted on projects to assist ... especially Ugu district and many other districts which I will go through here, are hampered in their work by the elements that find themselves on the sidelines of these operators who demand money. So, between me, you and the hon member there, we need to find a way of meeting these people and saying to them that they are holding back development.
Over and above the fact that we do not have the necessary skills that we need in all of these municipalities, we have those scoundrels sitting out there taking money from people who have been given responsibilities to do what they are supposed to do.
If you can help me do that, I will be able to give you a date by which, in Ugu district ... [Interjections.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, I think these members ought to listen because this affects on the ground who do not have the water that you have in Bishopscourt! [Interjections.] We are trying to
provide water to the poorest of the poor, which you are hogging out in Bishopscourt and it doesn't get to where it is supposed to. [Interjections.]