31/01/2024
31 January 2024.
To all Media Houses.
COPE CALLS ON THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT TO TAKE OVER WATER AND SANITATION SERVICES FUNCTIONS OF THE SOL PLAATJE MUNICIPALITY.
The consistent crisis of the Sol Plaatje municipality's lack of reliable and safer water and sanitation services is an established fact. It has been coming for 13 years without any impactful and sustainable solutions. Of late, the situation has been fast deteriorating rather than improving. No administrative or political leader in the municipality has ever been held accountable for such massive failures.
The integrity of governance and management systems have been gravely compromised by a failure of leadership at all levels of the Sol Plaatje municipality. There is a gulf between the leaders and the residents regarding trust and confidence.
The Auditor General has reported countless times on the failures; ordinary people have written letters of complaint to some of the Chapter 9 Institutions, while others have filed criminal complaints with the Hawks to investigate serious allegations of mismanagement and corruption at the municipality. These and other actions have not produced the desired results.
Today, we announce a public campaign to build awareness and organise people to join a campaign of action to restore accountability and responsiveness at Sol Plaatje municipality. To complain forever without action has proven to be a fruitless exercise.
Now is the time for impactful action for change.
1. We call on the national government to immediately assume the functions of water and sanitation services by invoking section 100 of the constitution. We do this because the provincial government, with its seat in the Sol Plaatje municipality, has either been in derelict of duty, oblivious to or ignored the crises and the people's cries for clean and reliable water and safer sanitation.
2. The Premier and MEC for local government live and work in the city daily and cannot pretend ignorance. They have both failed to exercise their functions and powers under section 139 of the Constitution. The Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, also experiencing the same crises, has failed to conduct oversight and hold the provincial and municipal executives accountable for appalling service delivery failures.
3. The first phase of the awareness campaign will involve distributing over 25,000 pamphlets, which call on people to sign an online petition to express their unhappiness with service delivery.
4. The second phase will include interactions with the Minister of Water and Sanitation and the Minister of Gogta to urge them to intervene without further delays. We hope to get both Ministers to come to the ground to address residents about their plans to resolve this unacceptable situation.
5. Failure to intervene will force us to approach the High Court of South Africa to seek an order to compel the government to fulfil its obligations under the constitution. It will be a sad day in our democracy when citizens go to court to force their government to fulfil its constitutional functions.
6. The campaign's third phase will include reaching out to all stakeholders, such as churches, business formations, trade unions, civil society, and all political parties, to form a broad, united community front across race, class, and gender to take back their municipality.
This action is about lives and livelihoods and shouldn’t be politicised. We call on the residents to take back their power and ensure change for the better. Those in power seem to have forgotten that they are accountable to residents. Power belongs to the people. It is time for responsible mass action to ensure a responsive and accountable local government that serves all its people.
Issued by: Jimmy Besent.
Coordinator – COPE Sol Plaatje Municipal Constituency
0826226775
![[GREAT START]We went out today, Tuesday, to distribute the Clean Water Campaign pamphlets. Great reception and positive ...](https://img3.govserv.org/012/587/122127371330125879.jpg)
