DA in Polokwane says city development be placed on hold until water issue is resolved

DEMOCRATIC Alliance (DA) caucus leader in the Polokwane council, Jacques Joubert, believes the plan presented in the state of the city address on Tuesday to deal with the water deficit was “a little too late”.

Joubert further believes that development plans in the city should be placed on hold until the water issue has been resolved.

“When there’s such massive construction, it uses immense amount of water putting even more pressure on the water. So, I have suggested – even though that is not what the city wants – that we hold developments until the water plans are put in place.

“Previous timelines were not realised. So, we’ll have to wait and see if those plans come to fruition. Polokwane reacts to a crisis, they are not pro-active,” Joubert said.

He said he still see people in the CBD carrying water in wheelbarrows “and I don’t see how this is progress”.

“This is the growing city with metro aspirations. We have untreated sewerage running down the Blood River and the mayor didn’t say anything about that,” Joubert said.

He also lambasted the absence in the address of pending investigations against officials implicated in the forensic report, and the issue of employees’s shifts and the smart meter installations in Mankweng.