DA eThekwini mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen has called for an urgent overhaul of the City’s water management system, saying residents can no longer be expected to live with leaking infrastructure, dry taps and continued water losses.
Hoosen made the call during a picket at the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Depot in Halifax Road, Pinetown, where he was joined by DA councillors and members of the provincial legislature to highlight the party’s proposed approach to addressing the municipality’s ongoing water crisis.
Hoosen said the DA’s water management plan would focus on fixing the system from the ground up, with greater emphasis on identifying and repairing leaks, maintaining infrastructure, improving response times and holding officials accountable for the performance of the water and sanitation department.
“eThekwini does not have a shortage of water. It has a water management crisis. We have a system that is losing enormous volumes of treated water through leaks and failing infrastructure while residents are left without reliable access to water,” Hoosen said.
He said the municipality needed to move away from a reactive approach, where residents were forced to report the same problems repeatedly, towards a proactive system that identifies failures before they become major disruptions.
“Our plan is about fixing the pipes, fixing the processes and fixing accountability. We need proper monitoring of the water network, rapid response teams, preventative maintenance and clear targets for reducing water losses,” Hoosen said.
He said the municipality should also strengthen the monitoring of contractors and internal maintenance teams, ensuring that work is completed properly and that residents can track the progress of reported faults.
Hoosen said the DA would place the reduction of non-revenue water at the centre of its water strategy, arguing that every litre of treated water lost through leaks represented money that could otherwise be used to improve services.
“We cannot continue pumping, treating and distributing water only to watch it disappear through broken pipes. Reducing water losses must become one of the City’s most important performance targets,” he said.
Hoosen also used the picket to call for the removal of Ednick Msweli, the City’s Head of Water and Sanitation, arguing that the continued water crisis demonstrated a failure of leadership and accountability within the department.
“Residents deserve officials who are going to take responsibility and deliver. After years of ongoing water challenges, we cannot simply accept the status quo. We believe that Mr Msweli has failed in his responsibilities and should be removed from his position,” Hoosen said.
He said the call was not about personalities, but about accountability and the need for leadership capable of turning around the department.
“The people of eThekwini are paying for water services and they have a right to expect those services to work. If senior officials cannot deliver, there must be consequences,” Hoosen said.
He said a DA-led administration would publish measurable targets for reducing water losses, improving turnaround times on leaks and restoring reliable water services to communities.
“Water is not a luxury. It is a basic service. Our plan is simple: find the leaks, fix the infrastructure, manage the network properly, hold people accountable and make sure that every resident has access to a reliable water supply,” Hoosen said.
