The City of Tshwane has failed to adhere to Batho Pele principles by not providing Hammanskraal residents with clean water.
Dr Chana Pilane-Majake, Deputy Minister of the Department of Public Service and Administration, expressed her disappointment with regard to poor services to township residents during her unannounced visit to Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant yesterday.
Residents in Hammanskraal have been forced to consume dirty water because the Rooiwal plant lacked capacity to purify waste water, resulting in the sludge being discharged into the Apies River.
The Apies River in turn supplied water to Temba water treatment plant, used for purifying water for the Hammanskraal residents.
The City said there were roaming water tankers used to provide residents with water as an interim measure to alleviate the problem.
Pilane-Majake also visited Jubilee district hospital, where she was told some patients lamented the fact that they were forced to sleep on chairs and wheelchairs due to shortage of beds.
The hospital was also grappling with a shortage of staff, which negatively affected the quality of services to people.
Speaking to the “Pretoria News”, Pilane-Majake said her visits were meant to monitor if front line workers adhered to Batho Pele principles, which essentially calls for the government to prioritise quality services to people.
She lashed out at the City, saying its provision of dirty water to people was not in the spirit of Batho Pele.
“It is a pity that it has happened and the City agrees itself that it is unfortunate. At the same time, they are saying that the report they got said that the cholera didn’t come from the water. But that doesn’t necessarily make water that is dirty to be justified as the water that can be consumed,” she said.
She said Batho Pele meant that the government must “go the extra mile to try to make it better for the people”.
“Whatever is happening at service delivery points becomes our business; the approach, how people are handled on a day to day basis and this is why we continue to promote the Batho Pele principle because the principle says “people first”. This is to remind public servants that they are not for themselves but for the people because this is a government of the people for the people,” she said.
Pilane-Majake encouraged the public to make use of chapter nine institutions such as the public protector to report cases of maladministration and abuse of office by public servants.
“With us we have what we call the public service commission and when anything within the government is actually going wrong in terms of the issues of service delivery or public servants abusing their powers, the commission has the mandate to actually make the necessary intervention,” she said.
During her visit she interacted with some City of Tshwane officials and political leaders and representatives from the national Department of Water and Sanitation.
Pilane-Majake’s visit to Rooiwal comes two weeks after Public Protector Gcaleka Kholekae released a damning report about a probe into allegations that the City was failing to provide the residents of Hammanskraal with clean water suitable for human and animal consumption.
The public protector’s report found fault with the municipality for neglecting its constitutional obligation to provide clean water to residents.
The Rooiwal plant has recently been under the spotlight after a probe by the municipality unveiled that a R295 million tender awarded to companies with ties to controversial businessman Edwin Sodi was irregularly awarded.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has since signed a proclamation authorising the Special Investigating Unit to investigate allegations of maladministration and corruption in the tender awarded to a joint venture of CMS Water Projects and NJR Projects linked to Sodi.
The companies were appointed for a Phase 1 construction in October 2019, but failed to complete the project.
Yesterday, ActionSA said: “The Public Protector report verified that a major factor in the lack of clean water suitable for consumption by Hammanskraal residents was the Rooiwal water treatment works’ dysfunctional state and the fact that it was never renovated, even after (businessman Edwin) Sodi’s company, Blackhead Consulting, was awarded a R290 million tender.”
The township experienced a cholera outbreak in May this year, resulting in more than 20 fatalities.
Pretoria News