A group of BOSA supporters pickets outside the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, where President Cyril Ramaphosa is attending the National Water Indaba, calling for an end to the water crisis.
Image: Supplied / BOSA
A group of Build One South Africa (BOSA) supporters staged a picket on Thursday outside the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was attending the National Water Indaba.
Their protest aimed to pressure the government into taking immediate action to address South Africa's worsening water crisis.
Stevens Mokgalapa, the former mayor of Tshwane and current board chair of BOSA, led a demonstration where he emphasised the need for concrete action.
He said BOSA demands an end to endless summits and discussions, urging the government to focus on providing tangible solutions that guarantee reliable water access for all South Africans.
“The main issue we are raising is that water is a constitutional right. We are in the human rights month, where we should be observing human rights and one of the fundamental human rights is access to water,” he said.
Mokgalapa called on the government to desist from turning critical meetings like the water indaba into “talk shops”.
“As BOSA, we are saying there is no more need for talk shops. We want the government to act to end this water crisis. We announced last week that we will be taking the government to court to compel them to end water shedding in hospitals, schools, and police stations, which are the key public institutions,” Mokgalapa said.
Secondly, he said, the party demanded that the government invest in the water infrastructure to deal with nationwide water issues.
“The essence of why we are here is to tell the government to act with urgency to resolve the water crisis in the country.”
He attributed the cause of the water crisis to poor management and failure by the government to invest in infrastructure.
“We cannot be talking that we are a dry country. We have had massive rain since December and in terms of the natural resources, water is there. So, the issue is about infrastructure and maintenance,” he said.
He suggested that the water boards and the provincial governments also come on board to address the problem of water in the country.
“I am hoping that coming from the Indaba, there will be an understanding of cooperative governance among parties. It is about funding and ensuring that there is adequate capacity to be able to maintain and build infrastructure,” he said.
Mokgalapa said BOSA is issuing a broad call for the government to promptly address the water crisis.
He said the specific water-related challenges differ from region to region, highlighting the need for tailored solutions to effectively mitigate the crisis.
“The crisis of water in Tshwane, for example, is different from the crisis of water in Johannesburg. As we speak, currently Johannesburg has its own water crisis, but in the main, it boils down to the capacity to build water infrastructure. But the main objective is that we want the government to make sure that there is no water shedding in public institutions. If we can achieve that we would have achieved our goal,” he said.
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za