“In a time when water is so scarce and government has had to institute water restrictions”
The Democratic Alliance will on Monday file an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to access “the long overdue blue and green drop reports so we may know the full extent of our water infrastructure”, DA MP Leon Basson said.
“The DA suspects that these reports will reveal that ANC governments across the country have failed to maintain and upgrade our water infrastructure [and] that has contributed in large part to our current water shortages,” he said in a statement.
The DA had given Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane a seven-day deadline to release the 2014 blue and green drop reports, which she “unfortunately and predictably missed”.
“In a time when water is so scarce and government has had to institute water restrictions and water shedding it is critical that we know the full reasons that have contributed to the water issues plaguing the nation,” Basson said.
Mokonyane’s “persistent dithering” regarding the release of the reports highlighted a lack of transparency which showed her government’s “unwillingness to own up and confront South Africa’s water crisis and the causes thereof”.
She had announced that she would release the reports by September 30, “but as routine, she has missed this deadline without an explanation or an alternative date”.
“If the minister has not [got] the requisite political will to tell the nation the truth in this regard, the DA will compel her to release the reports that do not belong to her or the ANC, but to the people of South Africa,” Basson said