Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero will be hauled before Parliament on Friday to outline his plan to tackle the city’s worsening water crisis.
This follows after violent protests erupted in Coronationville and Westbury last week, where residents burned tyres and clashed with police in frustration over dry taps.
The portfolio committee on water and sanitation has also demanded answers on why R4 billion was diverted from Joburg Water to the city’s coffers – funds meant to maintain and improve basic services, EWN reports.
Responding to the controversy at a press conference on Monday, Morero insisted the money was not missing but rather used for broader municipal needs, reports News24.
“We have to pay salaries, maintain parks, road signals from all the money. It us a balancing act on how we spend our budget.”
During Tuesday’s committee meeting, MPs once again expressed frustration at municipalities’ ongoing failure to provide reliable water services. Some members pointed to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks at an ANC gathering on Monday, where he told party councillors to take lessons from Democratic Alliance-run municipalities that are managing service delivery more effectively.
The Department of Water and Sanitation acknowledged there had been “mixed success” with its policy of withholding municipalities’ equitable share allocations until they commit to paying their water boards on time.
