ANC to act over DA ‘water tanker mafia’ billboard in Durban
The ANC says it will take action over a DA billboard targeting eThekwini officials, accusing the party of using a negative campaign to gain political support.
The African National Congress (ANC) says it will be taking action against the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) election campaign billboard in Durban.
On Monday, the DA put up a billboard over the busy N2 in Riverhorse Valley featuring the faces of eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba, City manager Musa Mbhele and the City’s executive director for water and sanitation, Siyanda Mwelase, saying: “You can stop the water tanker mafia”.
For years, the city has battled with water issues, which have also sparked community protests.
In an exclusive interview with East Coast Radio Newswatch, the ANC chief whip in parliament, Mdumiseni Ntuli, had this to say:
“We are used to this kind of behaviour and we are responding to them through the PLC (partly liaison committee) that represents us with the IEC but politically as well, for what it is because it is a negative agenda that they are using as part of their own effort to generate more support for the Democratic Alliance.”
Ntuli says there will be consequences if anyone within their ranks is linked to such behaviour.
“In an event where there are some among us who are found to be involved in that kind of activity, the ANC is going to act decisively.”
DA will not remove billboard despite legal demand
Meanwhile, the DA in eThekwini says it will not remove a water tanker mafia billboard in the greater Durban area, despite a legal demand from three senior municipal officials.
Lawyers for Xaba, Mbhele and Water and Sanitation Executive Director Ednick Msweli have given the party less than 24 hours to remove the billboard, issue an apology and stop using the “water tanker mafia” statement.
The lawyers say the billboard is defamatory and falsely links the officials to organised criminal activity. They've threatened legal action if the DA doesn't comply. But the party says the billboard isn't going anywhere.
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DA eThekwini mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen says they're holding the officials politically and administratively accountable for the city’s water crisis.
“ We have 13 000 active water leaks, 65% of the water is being wasted. We lose 21 billion litres of water every single month in Durban, and yet the city leadership in eThekwini have been doing absolutely nothing about it over the last five years,” says Hoosen.
“The situation gets worse. We demand accountability. We will continue demanding accountability until the people of this city remove the useless city government and replace it with a government that can get the city working again.”
Water shutdown affecting parts of eThekwini extended
Meanwhile, a water shutdown affecting parts of eThekwini has been extended, with residents and businesses now facing further delays before supply is restored.
The municipality's Senzelwe Mzila says technical challenges have pushed back work on the Southern Aqueduct pipeline, with the contractor still on site.
Mzila says while the work was initially expected to be completed by 6am on Thursday, it's now estimated to wrap up later in the day.
The contractor remains on site and is fast-tracking the outstanding work to restore the water supply to affected communities as soon as possible.
The shutdown was necessary to enable the contractor to undertake work for the new Southern Aqueduct upgrade project.
The Municipality acknowledges the inconvenience caused by the extended shutdown and has apologised to residents and businesses for the delay.
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