The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW) expresses its strongest condemnation of the ongoing water crisis affecting communities in and around Pretoria, particularly the latest reports of contaminated water affecting Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n
NUPSAW views this latest development as yet another disturbing indication of the City of Tshwane’s failure to fulfil its constitutional obligation to ensure access to safe and clean drinking water. It is unacceptable that, in a democratic South Africa, communities continue to face the threat of consuming contaminated water while those entrusted with managing essential public services repeatedly fail to provide sustainable solutions.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time the City of Tshwane has been confronted with a water crisis of this nature. For years, residents of Hammanskraal have endured serious water quality problems, with the devastating cholera outbreak of 2023 exposing the consequences of longstanding failures in water and sanitation infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Despite repeated warnings, public outrage and commitments to address these challenges, communities continue to experience water-related emergencies. This raises serious questions about the effectiveness of municipal leadership, infrastructure maintenance, oversight and accountability.<\/p>\n
NUPSAW maintains that the continued deterioration of essential public infrastructure cannot simply be attributed to technical failures without examining the role of those responsible for planning, maintenance, management and oversight. Municipal officials and political office-bearers entrusted with these responsibilities must account for their decisions and measures must be taken to prevent recurring crises.<\/p>\n
Access to clean drinking water is a constitutional right, not a privilege reserved for those who can afford alternative water supplies. Working-class communities, pensioners, children and vulnerable households are often the hardest to be hit by failures of this nature.<\/p>\n
NUPSAW further warns that the failure of City of Tshwane to guarantee access to clean and safe drinking water raises serious concerns about a system in which the collapse of public service delivery can create fertile ground for profiteering, patronage and the accumulation of private wealth at the expense of the working class. When public institutions fail, it is the poor who bear the consequences, while those with political connections may be positioned to benefit from emergency procurement of private water supply contracts.<\/p>\n
We reiterate that we are not interested in reports and promises, but action. We believe that the residents of this country deserve better and all those responsible for this crisis should be held accountable.<\/p>\n
~ENDS~<\/strong><\/p>\n Issued by NUPSAW <\/strong><\/p>\n For Media Enquiries contact NUPSAW MLO Neo Lebethe on 069\u00a0742 4004<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW) expresses its strongest condemnation of the ongoing water crisis affecting communities in and around Pretoria, particularly the latest reports of contaminated water affecting Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding areas. NUPSAW views this latest development as yet another disturbing indication of the CityContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-communications","post-165088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-news","category-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165089,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165088\/revisions\/165089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}