Gigaba ignoring Cape Town water crisis‚ says De Lille
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba is giving Cape Town's water crisis the silent treatment, says mayor Patricia de Lille. De Lille told a council meeting on Wednesday, 25 October, Gigaba had not replied to a request she sent two months ago for permission to table an adjustment budget to fund alternative water sources.
Image source: www.sahistory.org.za
The city council wants to introduce desalination, water reuse and groundwater abstraction as alternative sources of drinking water amid the worst drought on record. The council says it needs to adjust its budget to fund the projects, but cannot do so without the go-ahead from Gigaba, who did not refer to the drought in his medium-term budget policy statement on Wednesday.
"My request has not been responded to by the minister except for officials in Treasury asking for clarity, which we gave, and in the past two months there have been numerous follow-ups to the minister's office and an appeal to the presidency," said De Lille.
If Gigaba did not respond, the city would have no choice but to hold an urgent adjustment budget meeting next week, she said.
"I am appealing to the minister directly to respond to my correspondence to allow us to have a special adjustment budget.
"We have the money for the augmentation schemes in the system but the biggest stumbling block in our plans is getting approval from minister Gigaba."
Half of Cape Town businesses say the drought has become a threat to their survival, according to a survey by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It also found that the water crisis had caused 23% of firms to delay or halt new investments.
"It is clear that we have a major crisis on our hands and it is time to slash the red tape and take emergency measures," chamber president Janine Myburgh said on Wednesday.
"Normal bureaucratic procedures were not designed to deal with emergencies."
The survey also asked businesses how they were dealing with the water crisis. Nearly 41% said they had halved water consumption and 26% said they had reduced use by 25%. Myburgh said businesses particularly hard hit by the crisis were hotels, guest houses, catering firms, restaurants and others who provided services to the tourist industry. Landscaping and gardening services were also already shedding jobs. Manufacturing operations that rely on water for production were most under threat.
"Without water, we close down," said one respondent.
Source: The Times
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