The Eastern Cape government is moving to support the town of Makhanda to get its water supply back on track.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) MEC Zolile Williams is deploying experts to improve the financial and technical capacity of the municipality to provide water under Section 154 of the constitution.
Large parts of the town have been without water for more than two weeks due to infrastructure failures and labour action related to overtime payments. Spokesperson for the MEC Pheello Oliphant says the support staff will start on Monday.
The solution in the immediate is to stop municipal employees who are encouraging others to strike and to appoint an expert in engineering and to request Rhodes University to help with the sanitation operations and to repair. Lastly, the MEC will visit Makhanda to meet stakeholders to address the water problems and to find further solutions to the problem.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Eastern Cape welcomes the intervention by the CoGTA department to resolve the water woes of Makhanda.
