ANC’s Jeff Radebe Urges Party-Led Municipalities to Crush Water Tanker Mafia Ahead of Local Elections in KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal ANC convener Jeff Radebe called on the party's members to end corruption linked to water tankers.
Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers.
The ANC's convener in KwaZulu-Natal Jeff Radebe has called on the party-led municipalities to crush the water tanker mafia as the water crisis deepens in the country.
Delivering the closing address of a two-day party provincial lekgotla (gathering) in Durban, Radebe warned delegates that the party must crush corruption in water supply to avoid losing respect from communities ahead of local government elections.
He said that water tanker corruption was very serious and people were being killed yet the government was not seen to be acting decisively against this kind of corruption and crime.
“Comrades, I am sure most of you know how many officials have been killed in eThekwini because of water related issues. This is very serious and witnesses have spoken about this in the Madlanga Commission and in the Ad Hoc Committee so we must be uncompromising against crime and corruption, irrespective of who is involved, otherwise people will lose confidence in us,” said Radebe.
He said that he was sympathetic to the people of Johannesburg who have been protesting against water outages, and said he fully understood how difficult it was to go days without water.
The former ANC head of policy, also appealed to the party's deployees to fix local government and ensure a decisive victory for the party in the coming local government elections.
“Comrades, fixing local government means we must fix ourselves first. There were times when our province was the biggest ANC (province) in the country in terms of support, so we must work hard to reclaim that position,” said Radebe.
He also announced that president Cyril Ramaphosa would be coming to the province to deliver the keynote address during the provincial 114th party anniversary celebration. The event will take place at the Overport Cricket Stadium in Durban on March 7.
Radebe urged all 11 regions, particularly eThekwini to mobilise members to attend to show that the party is still alive in the province.
The call for mass mobilisation came after the humiliating attendance for the national party birthday celebration in North West last month. With its strong support for the ANC prior to the 2024 general elections, KwaZulu-Natal was able to influence decisions in the party’s elective conferences and always ensured that it had a representation in the top five of the party.
In the last elections, the party was decimated by Jacob Zuma’s Umkhonto weSizwe Party which relegated it to the third place in the provincial legislature.