The first phase of a multi-phase awareness campaign, in which a political party wants to gather 50 000 signatures in a petition against poor service delivery and violation of human rights in Kimberley, was recently launched.
Afterwards, the petition will be handed over to the relevant ministers and the president as Cope claims the Sol Plaatje Municipality and the provincial government is doing little to improve service delivery.
If the petition fails to produce results, they will approach the courts for a declaratory order.
This comes as Kimberley experiences regular water supply disruptions from water leaks and problems at the Riverton Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and reservoirs.
There are sewage spillages and potholes all over the city, amongst other problems.
Pakes Dikgetsi, party member, says there are several options to improve the situation.
“The first option is to dissolve the council and have fresh elections, or have an administrator taking over. A partial takeover of the water and sanitation department at the municipality is also possible.
“It is allowed in terms of section 139 of the Constitution, which says that when a municipality cannot or does not fulfil an executive obligation in terms of the Constitution, the relevant provincial executive may intervene by taking appropriate steps to ensure fulfilment of that obligation,” he says.
“That obligation means providing safe, reliable and clean water. This has not been done for the past 13 years. Sadly, nobody has been held accountable since 2011.
“The municipality has collapsed. The council committees are not sitting regularly as they should, and reports are not filtering through. Buildings plans are not approved, construction comes to a halt, and the economy is not growing. It has an impact on municipal revenues.
“Council meetings are held irregularly. When opposition parties like the DA want to oversight visit at Riverton WTP, they are prevented from doing so.”
Residents must attend council meetings and legislature sittings to demand oversight.
“The legislature, for example, must conduct oversight visits and hold the executive accountable as to why service delivery is so poor.
“Both the legislative and executive arm of the provincial government are in derelict of their duties.”
He says the campaign will involve all political parties, trade unions, businesses, churches and more.
“We want to educate citizens on their rights and duties. People must not wait for elections to demand services, it must be done regularly.”
Jennifer Gewers, the party’s executive coordinator in the Sol Plaatje region, says in the second phase of the campaign interaction with the ministers of Water and Sanitation and Cogta will take place to urge them to intervene without further delays.
“If that fails, we will approach the High Court of South Africa to seek a declaratory order to compel the government to fulfil its obligations under the constitution.
“It will be a sad day in our democracy when citizens must go to court to force their government to fulfil its constitutional functions.”
