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The DA has confirmed through our oversight visit at the Water and Sanitation Depot Pinetown and Springfield that the EThekwini Municipality does not have material to fix burst pipes, leaks and water meters in its stores.

The oversight became necessitated by the high number of water-related complaints which are not being resolved, leaving residents without water for days and even weeks. The oversight was conducted by Cllr Zamani Khuzwayo, Cllr Hlengiwe Shozi and myself.

What we came to witness is shocking. Both in Springfield and Pinetown Depot, the store shelves which are supposed to have material to help plumbers to fix leaks and burst pipes in the City are completely empty (see video).

The biggest challenge that all the stores have is the serious shortage of the fittings which are crucial for the day to day operation of the department.

We have learnt that plumbers who are on shift often find themselves not being able to do their job when called due to the lack of material. When called to a job, without material, plumbers are unable to proceed and fix the complaint.

More disappointingly, we have learnt that often plumbers have had to resort to digging in the depot rubbish to try and find an old material that can be reused to try and resolve a complaint.

We have since written to the Water and Sanitation Head, Ednick Msweli asking the following questions:

What is the reason for the stores not having sufficient material such as the fittings?

What is being done to ensure that there is sufficient material in all the water and sanitation stores?

How long will it take to stock and when will the stores be fully capacitated?

We understand that plumbers due to a lack of material, attend a job but do nothing but charge for their time. Is this correct and how prevalent is this?

We have asked that Msweli provides an urgent response to these questions. The shortage of plumbing material has had a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of the residents in EThekwini. It cannot be accepted that a municipality as big as EThekwini is failing to ensure that there is sufficient material in its stores, this is a huge slap in the face of the ratepayers. Every day is proof that ANC has failed in eThekwini, it has forgotten its first priority which is the residents.

Issued by The DA