Today’s damning report by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) on the utter collapse of municipal service delivery in the North West province comes as no surprise to the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus).
The report merely confirms what the party has been pointing out for years in municipalities, the Legislature and Parliament, i.e., that service delivery in the province has not merely deteriorated, but has ground to a complete halt.
Although the HRC’s findings are shocking, they are nothing new to residents who face these challenges on a daily basis: sewage flowing through homes, streets and even schools; water outages lasting weeks or months; uncollected refuse piling up; and a growing number of illegal dumping sites where children sometimes play, which poses a serious risk.
Under Premier Lazarus Mokgosi and the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA), Saliva Molapisi, the provincial government did have the mandate to intervene, but neglected its duty.
The HRC made it very clear: It is no longer a matter of “poor service delivery”, but a daily violation of people’s constitutional rights and a public health crisis of national proportions.
The HRC has also issued clear and urgent directives to address the service delivery crisis in North West.
These include, among other things:
• Municipalities must, within 90 days, submit viable and funded recovery plans for refuse removal, water, sewerage and road infrastructure.
• The first phase of implementing these plans must already be underway within 180 days.
• All neglected waterworks and sewerage plants have to be repaired urgently, without any excuses or delays.
• The provincial government should stage section 139 interventions in municipalities where service delivery has totally collapsed.
• A crisis task team comprising technical experts, civil society organisations and opposition parties should be established within 60 days to oversee the execution of the recovery plans.
The Freedom Front Plus wholeheartedly supports the HRC’s directives, in particular, that municipal managers and officials who have misappropriated funds or deliberately neglected their duties should be investigated and criminally prosecuted.
Communities should not have to bear the brunt of these individuals’ mismanagement and corruption.
Personal liability and criminal prosecution are the only means to compel them to perform their duties for residents’ benefit – and not their own personal financial gain.
North West serves as living proof that the ANC is incompetent and cannot govern. The province’s decline was no accident, on the contrary, it is the direct result of years of faction fights, corruption, greed and the systematic deployment of cadres who place political loyalty above competence.
The Freedom Front Plus will work tirelessly in every sphere of government to ensure these directives do not merely remain words on paper, but are implemented as soon as possible.
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