Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by David Mc Kay MPL and Sesotho soundbite by Jafta Mokoena MPL. See attached pictures here, here and here.
The DA will demand an urgent independent investigation into Letsemeng’s water crisis and whether failures in water-treatment chemicals, budgeting or procurement exposed residents to E. coli contamination.
Residents of Jacobsdal, Koffiefontein and Petrusburg have been instructed to boil their water after E. coli was detected in municipal supply systems. This is a serious public-health failure, not a routine inconvenience.
The municipality has confirmed microbiological non-compliance with the SANS 241:2025 drinking-water standard. Reservoir flushing and increased disinfection are now under way, but emergency measures cannot replace the municipality’s responsibility to prevent unsafe water from reaching residents in the first place.
Residents deserve clear answers. Were treatment chemicals unavailable? Were water budgets neglected? Did procurement failures, financial constraints or possible wrongdoing compromise the safety of the water supply? These questions require an open, independently verified investigation.
The timing is particularly alarming. While residents are being told to boil water for drinking, cooking and infant formula, the municipality has found funds for a R50,000 entrepreneurial competition, high-visibility clean-up campaigns and sudden pothole repairs ahead of the election. Residents are entitled to ask whether public money was directed toward politically convenient projects while essential water-treatment safeguards were neglected.
The Mayor cannot claim credit merely for issuing a warning after contamination was found. Communication was necessary. Prevention was the duty. Water is a human right, not an election-season afterthought.
The DA will demand disclosure of chemical stock levels, water-quality testing records, budgets and procurement decisions, and accountability wherever negligence or wrongdoing is established. It is time to stop the ANC chaos and start the delivery.