Govan Mbeki Municipality is ground zero, says Steenhuisen

DA leader John Steenhuisen on Monday took a swipe at Govan Mbeki Municipality in Mpumalanga for poor service delivery, saying its priorities were wrong. 

Steenhuisen handed a petition to the municipality calling for corrective action. “The streets are destroyed by potholes. People go for weeks without water and electricity, and there is sewage running in the streets. With all this failure, businesses are closing and leaving the area, meaning unemployment is increasing.

“People are still waiting for houses promised to them. People are still waiting for sewerage and water services that were promised and all these turn out to be empty promises.”

Steenhuisen accused the municipality of wasting money on music festivals instead of building houses, infrastructure and creating jobs.

“We’re going to continue to put pressure on this municipality, but it is also ground zero for the doomsday coalition. The ANC did not get a majority here and rely on the EFF to govern. The coalition is bringing doomsday to the people of Govan Mbeki, who are living in misery.

“Our message is clear. We’ve got to prevent this happening at a national level. We stand a good chance in this election. People are tired of corruption. They are tired of living without jobs, tired of bad services and they’ve realised they need to vote to change these things.

“Being on the ground and interacting with citizens in Mpumalanga and the rest of the country has given me a real sense that people are desperate for change and this election has far too much for them to stay at home. I will spend the next 23 days criss-crossing the country, taking the message of change to all South Africans,” he said. 

In April, the municipality was fined R200m by the Bethal magistrate’s court for contravening environmental laws.

Mpumalanga National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said that between November 2019 and September 2020 the municipality caused significant pollution with its “disposal and distribution of raw and untreated sewage”.

In March, Rand Water singled out Emfuleni and Govan Mbeki as municipalities it is “struggling” with as it tries to recoup more than R3bn owed to it by seven defaulting municipalities in Gauteng, the Free State and Mpumalanga.

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