Minister Sisulu To Meet Various Stakeholders On The Cabinet Approved Emfuleni Intervention to address Pollution of the Vaal River System
The Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu will this week meet with the various stakeholders including the affected spheres of government to brief them on the outcomes of the Cabinet meeting regarding the intervention in Emfuleni Local Municipality.
At the Cabinet meeting held last week, the Minister sought and received Cabinet approval for the national government to intervene in Emfuleni Local Municipality. This will see the Department of Water and Sanitation taking over water and sanitation services within the jurisdiction of the affected municipality in accordance with Section 63 (2) of the Water Services Act, 1997 (Act 108 of 1997). Rand Water has been appointed the Implementing Agent.
The series of meetings with all affected parties will also seek to outline an implementation plan that will see intervention being put into action without any delay.
“Now that our intervention has been approved by the Cabinet, we need to roll up our sleeves and hit the ground running. Let us focus on the challenge at hand and dedicate our energies to resolve water and sanitation challenges in Emfuleni once and for all”, said Minister Sisulu.
“While government is committed to do its part in rehabilitating existing infrastructure through making available the required resources, we implore our local leaders and community members to take ownership in protecting this infrastructure for us to make this a collective and sustained success. Vandalism of the infrastructure and throwing foreign objects into our sewer system is a problem that can only be dealt with by the community concerned. For us to achieve the expected results in Emfuleni we need everyone to come on board, this is also a regional water and sanitation issue with big socio-economic benefits”, added Sisulu.
On the matter of the Cuban engineers the Minister has advised members of the public to visit the website of the Department of Water and Sanitation to access and peruse the affidavit the department had filed in court last week in response to Solidarity’s urgent court action.
Enquiries:
Steve Motale, Ministry Spokesperson
Cell: 083 784 0719