The DA has criticised the management of the current water shortage in parts of the country, calling on the government to take urgent action to mitigate the crisis.

The opposition party says President Cyril Ramaphosa should mobilise the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to provide its water tankers to address the water shortages.

“The SANDF must make use of their logistical infrastructure and water tankers, as a short-term measure to ensure that those residents most affected by water losses are able to get clean drinking water until the water crisis has been solved,” the party said.

DA premier candidate for Gauteng Solly Msimanga and the party's premier candidate for KwaZulu-Natal, Chris Pappas, blamed unstable governments led by ANC/EFF coalitions for causing “unprecedented water challenges and instability”.

“Over the past two weeks, we have seen residents going days without any water in most parts of Johannesburg and eThekwini. In eThekwini, a long series of infrastructure maintenance and service delivery failures, coupled with an illegal Samwu strike, has plunged the city into paralysis,” they said.

Msimanga called on local and provincial governments to set up and encourage public-private partnerships to address the water-shedding crisis leverage resources and expertise from both sectors to find sustainable solutions. 

“We are also calling on the police to establish a specialised investigating team to deal with and investigate acts of sabotage contributing to the service delivery collapse and ensure they report back to the portfolio committee in the National Assembly on their progress made.”

The party also called for increased government support for non-governmental and nonprofit organisations.

“The DA will urge the government to come on board and allocate funds to non-governmental organisations [NGOs] and nonprofit organisations [NPOs] to provide support to the worst-affected areas due to the water-shedding crisis, ensuring assistance reaches those in dire need.”

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