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In any election there are key moments when a general attitude is captured perfectly by a particular action. Yesterday South Africa bore witness to one such moment, when the mayor of Ficksburg, Mbothoma Maduna, giggling as he pulled from his office refrigerator a bottle of mineral water, said: "People say there is no water in this town. What is this?" Rarely are contempt and arrogance brought together in such a powerful way: a sheer disdain for the public and those people, especially the poor, for whom basic services like access to water are fundamental, not just to their dignity, but their very ability to survive on a day-to-day basis.

These are the words of a mayor out of touch with the people he represents; a party that has forgotten the promises it has made; and an executive that has abandoned compassion, empathy and understanding in favour of callous self-interest.

The people of Ficksberg now face a clear choice: vote for mayor Maduna and endorse the cold, callous, uncaring attitude he embodies toward those people he represents. Or they can reject him, take a stand against his self-importance and the arrogant assumption he and his party make – that the people of Ficksburg will simply endorse his behaviour – and vote him out of office. The people of Ficksberg need once and for all to show mayor Maduna that the power lies with them and not with him and his party.

The town of Ficksburg in the Free State is facing a serious water crisis. The people of Maqheleng township must walk long distances with wheelbarrows and buckets just to get clean water. Downtown businesses and residents face sporadic water outages, never knowing when their taps might run dry. Compounding this, the water shortage has also impacted sewage flow as it builds up and leaves an acrid smell in the area. When one resident complained about this and said that that the water crisis has been going on for four years, Maduna’s startling response was, "Four years is overly exaggerated. To be exact, it's about three years now”. This justification for his inaction beggars belief.

Ficksburg residents have tried valiantly for some time to bring their legitimate concerns to the mayor’s attention. Recently, they delivered to him a memorandum, but he never brought it to the city council or executive committee to discuss. He simply ignored it. This unresponsiveness led to the subsequent protest in which thousands marched to the mayor’s office and where Andries Tatane – a husband, father and community activist – was killed by police. Mayor Maduna and his government are to blame for the problems affecting the people of Ficksburg. Instead of trivialising this dire situation he should be taking full and public responsibility for it.

The future of Ficksburg looks bleak if its current leadership is allowed to remain in power. Poor service delivery has become the norm and the water crisis looks set to continue indefinitely. The people of Ficksburg are rightly angry at Mayor Maduna, but they have a seminal opportunity in the upcoming local government election to do at the ballot box what they believe is in the best interest of their community.

The people of Ficksburg deserve political leadership that is accountable, responsive and capable of delivering services in a clean, efficient manner. Unless they vote for such a government, Ficksburg's endless crises, borne of poor service delivery and unresponsive leadership, will continue unchecked.