Current Affairs: Deputy President Heads to Bronkhorstspruit After Contaminated Water Outbreak

Questions have been raised, of course, around the The presence of political conversations around this matter and now the visit by the deputy president and some have, I don't know whether appropriately or cynically suggested that this may be part of a political campaign.

suggesting that we didn't see the deputy president go to Amanskraal, for example, when 31 people died as a result of that particular moment, and that this is connected to, you know, the silly season of political campaigning.

What is your assessment as far as that is concerned, Alpha?

I mean, I would understand why people would draw such inferences, but I think with this story and the Hamanskral cholera outbreak is that we are actually dealing with human lives.

I mean, in Hamanskral, more than two dozens of people lost their lives in here.

While there were no reported fatalities, 833 people's lives were at risk.

And so this is also the point that was made by the executive mayor, Nassif Pimoya, today, that although it can be seen as something that is being used by some political parties as a campaigning tool, quite disingenuous to do so given that people could possibly lose their lives due to the city's failure to ensure that the water at that Broncor sprayed wastewater treatment plant is chlorinated and so of course political parties have definitely used the opportunity to tell voters not to vote back the ANC Action and Save Coalition in the city of Tswane.

This past weekend alone, Julius Malema, who was campaigning and enfilading, made the exact same point that this coalition should not be voted back into power.

The DA's leader...

Jordan Hill Lewis, who was campaigning in Durban over the weekend, also made the very same point that Julius Malema made.

But the executive mayor really believes that this is not something that should be used during this campaign, given that people's lives are at risk.

I

suppose in the context of everything, it's understandable that each of these political parties that you mentioned will make the noises that they are making.

But is the EFF not part of that coalition?

The irony is that the EFF is part of that Action SA and ANC coalition.

Their defense is that they do not head the portfolio that would deal with water and infrastructure in the city of Tsuane.

Neither do they sit in the executive mayor's office.

And so they believe that they are not involved simply because they do not occupy Tsuane.

any of those two executive positions and so the EFF is part of that mayoral committee and the executive in the city of Tawane but say that it is something that is in the hands of ANC and HNSA councillors so they believe that those two political parties uh, would be best placed to take accountability and to answer to how exactly, uh, you know, water at the water treatment plant went untreated for about three weeks.

So the EFF at this point really says that they've got nothing to do with any of this.