President Cyril Ramaphosa made some very bold announcements during his State of the Nation Address (Sona).
His promises to deploy the army in areas where police have failed to curb gang warfare and illegal mining got the most applause.
Perhaps his most intentional and “I’m dealing with this personally” promise was that he would be heading the Johannesburg water crisis committee himself.
What do all the announcements have in common? All of them have been made as a response to a crisis. A crisis that could have been prevented by government.
It needs to be noted that the president has given multiple Sonas over the years. Meaning that the country now has something which they can measure his promises against, and the consensus is that he has been “all speech and no action” over the years.
Some are holding their breath this time around because they know the government of national unity (GNU) has made it difficult for the president and the ANC to make promises and not act on them.
But the country is generally promise-weary. The Johannesburg water problem is not new. And while it is erroneously labelled as the “Johannesburg” water crisis, it is not, strictly speaking, a problem that has been limited to the Joburg municipality alone.
It is a Gauteng water crisis because any resident of Ekurhuleni or Tshwane metros can attest to worsening water problems every year.
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It is reported that Rand Water and the Joburg Water Board have an 80-year-old water infrastructure that has been severely undermaintained over the years, to such an alarming extent that more than 45% of the water is lost as non-revenue generating water.
That is almost half of the water the city buys from Rand Water. That is not something that happened overnight. It is a failure of those elected to govern.
Funds for the maintenance of the water infrastructure are budgeted for every single financial year but because of greed and corruption, those funds were diverted to line the pockets of tenderpreneurs.
And here is what drives citizens crazy: all the water lost without generating revenue is paid for through ever-increasing tariffs.
In other words, ordinary citizens are paying the municipality for the water it loses through its own inefficiencies.
Similarly, the gang violence in various parts of the country is a crisis that has been there forever.
Illegal mining is so rampant that it is alleged there are residential areas in certain parts of Mpumalanga that are built solely from the proceeds of illegal mining.
Both these violent activities have become a normalised part of the lives of ordinary South Africans.
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Communities that are ravaged by gang warfare are no longer shocked by random constant gunfire at all times of the day.
There are taverns in townships which operate under fear of a gunfight erupting between rival zama zama illegal mining gangs at any time.
The point is that the president has announced desperate measures for crises that have been simmering for years because the government has been doing nothing for years.
Is this to say the president must do nothing because he’s been doing nothing for years? No. The president and his government must govern.
They must repair the whole water distribution system and maintain it.
Gangsterism must be rooted out at societal grassroots level, on an ongoing basis, all the time.
Soon, the people will be expected to applaud the government for sorting out the taxi industry like it’s a new crisis.
People do not want to applaud promises, announce positive results from all the past promises, Mr President.
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