By Cebelihle Bhengu.
City of Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has shifted the blame for Joburg’s water shortages to Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu.
As Joburg residents look to the municipality to devise a permanent plan to end the water cuts that have gripped various parts of the city since August, Gwamanda said it was the national government, not the city, that had failed to deliver on its mandate.
Gwamanda further responded to criticism by Mchunu and the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who both criticised him for being missing in action.
The ministers complained that Gwamanda missed important meetings between Mchunu, the department, and Rand Water.
During a media briefing on the outcomes of last week’s Cabinet meeting, Ntshavheni called on mayors to come to the party because it was municipalities that stood to benefit from attending meetings with the minister, not the other way around.
“It is not the minister [that] requires assistance from the cities. It is the cities [that] require assistance from the Department of Water and Sanitation. That is why the executive mayors need to form part of those meetings,” she said.
On Tuesday last week, Mchunu announced the implementation of “water shifting” to ensure water supply in affected areas. Mchunu spoke during an engagement with disgruntled residents of Springfield, where he also pointed out that Gwamanda was not in attendance.
The Joburg mayor said that although he did not receive invitations to the meetings he had missed, he had met with “relevant stakeholders”, including Rand Water and Joburg Water, and was up to date with proposed solutions towards addressing the crisis.
Gwamanda said rather than boardroom meetings, the city focused on “corrective actions” to the crisis the city was plunged into because of “the national [government’s] incompetence and failure”.
He said: In Johannesburg, we are focused on corrective actions to restore water supply and mitigate the crisis we have been plunged into by national incompetence and failure. Attending meetings may be primary to the ministers, but we have residents and hospitals to whom we must guarantee a constant supply of water using tankers and other means. Those solutions we are implementing on the ground and not in meetings and boardrooms.
Comment from Mchunu will be added when received.