Former Tshwane Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for the Department of Water and Electricity and now Action SA Tshwane Mayoral candidate, Mr Abel Tau, has come out guns blazing, accusing his former political party the DA of having failed to govern Tshwane better as they had promised during the last elections.
This is after Tshwane Mayor, Mr Randall Williams, accused Action SA of deliberately omitting the 2019 period in the Action SA Hammanskraal Water Report because “it was during this time that current ActionSA Tshwane mayoral candidate, Mr Abel Tau, was the Tshwane MMC for the Department of Water and Electricity.”
Mr Tau said he believes the people of Tshwane gave the DA a chance because of hoping that the DA will improve the water situation in Hammanskraal because the DA at the time promised to govern better.
“The issue of poor water quality came about in 2004 but in 2015, building up to the 2016 Local Government Elections (LGE), the Democratic Alliance (DA) made a huge noise about the issue. They claimed that the ANC was giving the people of Hammanskraal water that is infested with human waste.
”In September 2018 the water quality reached the worst state it has ever been. This was three years into the DA’s reign. Subsequent to that there was a major strike that shut down Hammanskraal and that strike pushed the DA into a corner. The then MMC Darryl Moss under Mayor Solly Msimanga, insisted that the water was fit for human consumption,” he said.
He added that the DA failed dismally and in February 2019 Mayor Mokgalapa took over from Mr Msimanga, and Mr Tau took over from Mr Darryl Moss as MMC and that during that time, the official position of the DA was that the water was fine.
“I held that line but the background noise of the people saying the water is not okay worried me and in June 2019 I ordered an independent test which was done by the CSIR. The report came back to indicate that the water was unfit for human consumption.
“I immediately called for a stop in encouraging people to consume the water and I can boldly say I am the only one who led us to the right track,” he added.
He said he then ensured an increase in the tanker program to ensure sufficient supply to affected residents in the central part of Hammanskraal.
“I entered into an agreement with Magalies Water for the increase of water to 34 Maga liters (ML) a day moving from a baseline of 12 Ml. We finalized the supply of the Eastern parts of Hammanskraal through the DD Rand water pipeline.
“Basically we ensured that people of Hammanskraal had safe potable water for consumption through these means. I pushed for the fixing of the cause of the water problem which is the partially treated effluent from Rooiwal Waste Waterwork,” he added.
“I still remain the only person who has done more than anyone to solve the water problem.
‘What this Mayor does not tell is that he was the leader of Government Business under Solly Msimanga when they were not prioritizing the water in Hammanskraal.
“He doesn’t tell that he was not good enough to serve in the next administration because of their epic failure together with Msimanga, but worse he doesn’t tell that all the progress I made was reversed again under his watch as the city is on autopilot under him with a non-existent MMC of the department,” he added.
