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The Democratic Alliance has submitted written questions to the MEC of
COGHSTA today to determine the current status of the bucket
eradication programme.

We want to determine what happened to the provincial government’s
commitment to eradicate the bucket system by March 2015. This
assurance was given by premier Sylvia Lucas in her June 2014 state of
the province address, when she allocated R145 million for the
eradication of buckets. Her words were that the provincial government
“has unequivocally resolved to implement a Bucket Eradication
Programme that will see all buckets removed by March 2015. We are
pleased to report that we are well on course to achieve this before
the target date”.

However, in the recent state of the province address, the premier
allocated a further R165 million and said that it would eradicate 3
000 buckets. How did the provincial government go from being “well on
course to achieve” eradication to needing an additional R165 million
to eradicate 3 000 buckets? Is the 3 000 buckets the last of the
bucket system in the province or will the Bucket Eradication Programme
be rolled over to the 2016 financial year?

We are also curious about the costs of eradication of one bucket. At
R165 million, it will cost approximately R55 000 to eradicate one
bucket. The R165 million is enough to build 1 650 houses from scratch,
which is more than the department plans to build in this financial
year. We want to have the assurance that the provincial government
will appoint reputable contractors who will eradicate the bucket
system quickly and efficiently. We don’t want the contractors who
build houses which need to be rectified two or three months afterward.

We call on the provincial government to take its commitment to
eradicate the bucket system seriously. It is a degrading, dehumanising
system which has no place in South Africa. It is absolutely
unacceptable that 7% of our people still have to use this filthy
system.

Issued by DA