The DA has criticised ANC councillors and Rhodes University following the recent water crisis.
The DA has criticised ANC councillors and Rhodes University following the recent water crisis.
The party reacted strongly to what they describe as a public relations disaster after members of the public were turned away from a special council meeting at the City Hall on Monday 7 October.
DA councillors had invited residents to the meeting, assuming, they said, that it would deal with the city's current water crisis.
Some ANC councillors turned them away, however, insisting the meeting was not in fact a special council meeting.
A statement released on the DA's Facebook page on Friday 4 October was headed, "Another slap in the face of Grahamstown residents". In the post the DA says its councillors received an instruction at 8pm on Sunday 6 October to attend a special council meeting at 9am on Monday 7 October. because they assumed it concerned the continuing water crisis, the councillors advised as many residents as they could.
When Grocott's Mail reporters arrived at the meeting on Monday, residents and councillors were standing in the foyer waiting for it to begin.
However, acting mayor Nomhle Gaga told reporters that the meeting was had not been scheduled as a council meeting and asked reporters to leave.
Speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaacs also objected to the presence of members of the public in the meeting.
"The public… were understandably agitated about the lack of reliable information and the absence of water in their taps for eight days now. Profuse denials that the meeting was called as a Special Council, eventually led to the dismissal of our ratepayers," the DA statement read.
"Councillor Gaga… whose political leadership of technical services has overseen the collapse of every aspect of W&L service delivery, tried to persuade the public that if information was not getting out, it was the individual ward councillor's fault," the statement read.
According to the DA the meeting was a public relations disaster for the ANC-led council.
They described it as a graphic illustration of the DA councillors’ frustration in trying to work within the context of poor leadership, collapsing administration "and a complete lack of accountability on the part of political leadership and municipal officials".
On Monday 7 October DA leader Les Reynolds issued a statement informing residents about issues that had arisen from the meeting.
He said a joint operations centre had been set up with role players including the Council, Rhodes University, Amatola Water, consultants and officials from the Department of Water and Forestry. This committee, under the chairmanship of the Mayor, would meet daily during the water crisis, Reynolds said.
Reynolds said the pumps were working and the reservoirs were all reaching capacity.
"The municipal manager informed us that water would start flowing on Monday 7/10/2013 to all areas of town," he said.
He said water restrictions would be imposed for seven days from Monday 7 October not to overtax the system.
A company called Resolve was fixing water leaks in the city to fix water leaks.
Reynolds reported that the municipal manager would issue statements to councillors daily. These would be passed on to residents by ward councillors
In a new twist, there appear to be tensions between the DA and Rhodes University.
In the same Facebook post, Reynolds wrote: "Finally – Rhodes University do not recognise that they form part of Ward 12 and insist on dealing directly with the Presidency and the Municipality and will not include the ward councillor in this process."
"I believe that this is unfortunate, as this will break down any cooperative endeavour."
