Parliament: Cutting water supply not the solution
The Parliamentary Committee on Water has urged the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) not to cut water supply to indebted municipalities.
Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane announced last week that her department has notified 30 defaulting municipalities, asking them to pay the more than R10 billion owed before December 8.
But the committee's chairperson Mlungisi Johnson says cutting supply is not a solution.
"That is a short cut way of dealing with the problem. You cannot simply threaten people by taking away their constitutional right. Water is one of those constitutional rights stipulated in the Bill of Rights."
Johnson says the committee has instructed DWS to come with another solution.
"The department, Treasury and local government have to come together and bring a plan to how they will resolve the problem in 14 days. Some of these municipalities are indigent and some of these municipalities can afford. We want a clear sense of which ones can afford to pay immediately as far as the current account is concerned," he says.