Dear City, please explain why for most of the year my fixed charge is more than my monthly bill for water
WHAT a pity that Ebrahim Wydeman of Surrey Estate had to play the woman and not the ball – “Action needed as City decommissions desalination plants that cost ratepayers R30m”, and “Limberg defends City’s water expenditure and maintains tariffs not ‘punitive’” (Cape Argus, October 23).
I hold no brief for councillor Xanthea Limberg, but I don’t go around misquoting her as Wydeman did. He claims that she admitted on Radio 786 that the desalination plants (now being decommissioned) are an absolute and disgraceful disaster.
She said no such thing as Wydeman himself noted. She said, “The desalination plants are being decommissioned because they have served their temporary purpose”.
It’s sending good money after bad and if the City of Cape Town had not rejected Israel’s offer to bring desalination experts to help South Africa we wouldn’t be in the pickle we’re in. Day Zero was a figment of the DA council’s imagination.
The only part of Wydeman’s argument I agree with is that the water (and electricity) tariffs are punitive.
How else do you explain that for all these years the municipality has been charging well above inflation rates for both necessities. Just ask the Cape Chamber of Commerce. If the tariffs are not punitive, how can Limberg and her posse explain why for most of the year my fixed charge is more than my monthly bill for water?
And what happened to Dan “Piet Promises” Plato – that when he became mayor he would reduce tariffs for water and electricity.
The only thing he does is boast that Cape Town of all the metros had the lowest increase: 4.5%. What he neglected to say was that it covered the Samwu agreement which included all the council officials too.
Seth Siegel, the well-respected Wall Street Journal commentator, made it clear in 2018, that, “Cape Town’s reservoirs began receding more than two years ago”.
“This problem turned into a crisis because of subsidy-distorted water pricing, inefficient irrigation, and a lack of desalination facilities and a long-term plan.
“In 2016 officials from Israel’s Foreign Ministry recognised the problem and alerted national, provincial and local governments in South Africa. Israel has trained water technicians and it offered to bring in desalination experts to help South Africa. South African officials ignored or rebuffed the no-strings Israeli proposal.
“It would be admirable if South Africa’s rejection came from a can-do attitude, in a statement of national self-sufficiency. But it appears to have been for ideological reasons that South African officials wanted no help from Jerusalem.”
What I do think is that Limberg is not qualified for the job of “water manager” and she allows her department heads to lead her by the nose.
So, kyk hoe lyk ons nou. Politics has no role to play in the provision of water. Neither does electricity for that matter. Maybe the DA will get a wake-up call next year at the ballot box.
BRIAN JOSS | Milnerton