Mokonyane slammed for attitude to drought crisis
WESTERN Cape premier Helen Zille has lashed out at Water Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane over her utterances on the province’s drought crisis.
The veteran DA politician also took aim at what she called the national government’s apparent disdain for the private sector‚ accusing the government of entrenched Marxist tendencies.
Zille said Mokonyane had until recently been silent on the issue‚ which has gripped the Mother City since last year.
In an article posted on news website Daily Maverick, Zille compared Mokonyane’s comments to the work of British public relations firm Bell Pottinger.
“When she finally spoke publicly during the past two weeks‚ Nomvula Mokonyane blamed the city for the crisis‚ and rubbished the Day Zero [concept]‚ because‚ she said‚ it sounded defeatist,” Zille wrote.
“It had been invented‚ she suggested‚ as a PR concept‚ so that people could make money out of the water shortage.
“The minister’s speeches sounded as if they had been scripted by Bell Pottinger.”
Cape Town’s use of the term Day Zero came under fire from Mokonyane in parliament last week when she briefed the water and sanitation portfolio committee.
Day Zero is an emergency water-saving plan entailing most taps being turned off in Cape Town.
But Mokonyane said it had not been sanctioned by the National Disaster Management Centre. Other parts of the country had also been hit by severe dry spells‚ she said, and some areas of North West had not had water in three years.
Zille responded: “A simple question to the minister: If Day Zero is a figment of a PR consultant’s imagination‚ why does the Inter-ministerial task team intend to declare the drought a national disaster during the coming week?”