DA’s Hoosen says Durban voters are ready for change as water crisis dominates campaign

The DA’s eThekwini mayoral candidate believes Durban residents are ready to elect a new party to lead the province’s largest municipality.

Haniff Hoosen said people in Durban were crying out for change  as he marked one year this month since launching his campaign to become mayor. 

He launched his campaign in September last year.

He said the party had engaged with hundreds of communities and visited many areas across the city, where residents’ frustration was clear.

“It is exactly a year since we launched the campaign. Since then, we have travelled to various suburbs and informal settlements. The experiences we have had and the stories we have heard about frustration, anger and heartbreak in communities reflect the state of the city and the hopes that exist for the DA’s prospects going forward.

“Far too many people have given up hope in politics because they have supported many political parties (that let them down) in the past. The majority of the people we met felt let down by the ANC, which they have supported for the past 30 years. They are desperate for change and open-minded about considering other parties.”

He said there was potential support for the DA, which had motivated him and the party to work harder, engage with more stakeholders and communicate its message and plans for service delivery.

He said the party had told residents that, if they wanted to see change, they could change the government.

“The DA’s prospects going forward are huge,” he said.

He said the party was concerned about the possibility of an MK Party government in eThekwini. The DA had been informing the public that the MK Party and the ANC were effectively the same, he said.

“Anyone who votes for the MK Party is essentially going to get the same ANC government,” he said.

The DA has outlined several key pillars that it says will transform governance in eThekwini. It has also made water shortages a central part of its campaign as it seeks to challenge what it describes as failures by the current administration.

At a briefing yesterday morning, the candidate said the DA was ready to turn eThekwini around.

“DA governance across South Africa continues to deliver, while ANC governance fails, as eThekwini shows,” he said.

“After five years of ANC governance, eThekwini is now losing around 65% of its water, up from 48.9% when this term began in 2021. That amounts to approximately 21 billion litres of water lost every month.

“The administration knew the condition of the water system and had five years to act. Instead, losses rose and infrastructure deteriorated, while residents paid more for less.”

On Monday, the party unveiled a billboard naming three senior eThekwini Municipality leaders as being “responsible” for the water problems.

The mayor, city manager and head of Water and Sanitation appear on the billboard because, the DA says, the water crisis has worsened under their leadership.

In a statement, the party said: “These three leaders are accountable for failing to repair the system that has made eThekwini increasingly dependent on tankers. If they did their jobs, we would not be at the mercy of a water tanker mafia in this city.”

It alleged that the city was losing a lot of money by hiring water tankers to deliver water and security guards to escort the tankers during deliveries.

DA leader Sithembiso Ngema said it was important for eThekwini residents to know who was responsible for the city’s water supply.

“It is important that people in Durban know the source of the water problems. The causes include water leaks, ageing infrastructure that has been neglected and water tankers benefiting from the crisis. Valves are closed in certain areas so that water tankers can be dispatched to deliver water.

The mayor’s office had not commented on the billboard. However, it pushed back against allegations of a “water tanker mafia”, saying that the city had invested about R345 million in purchasing its own water tankers over the past few years and no longer used hired water tankers.