Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has been accused of infringing on the constitutional rights of citizens by restricting water supply to households in arrears with their water bills.
During the City’s last council meeting for the year, Freedom Front Plus councillor Grant Marais asked Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis whether he would consider the immediate scrapping of the “humiliating, shameful and undignified water dripping system for all households currently in arrears”.
Marais said it would be an act of goodwill to allow unrestricted access to open flow water, especially while children are home for the holidays, while in the fourth wave of this Covid-19 pandemic.
He said many people were unable to pay for water as they were unemployed as a result of the pandemic and wondered if the mayor was prepared to look at alternative ways to resolve this problem.
“I have families sitting without flowing water, while informal settlements have access to flowing water.
“They have arrears and did not qualify for indigent support due to outstanding documentation and did not previously qualify for such assistance.
“The government is bombarding the public with messages of washing their hands regularly, yet the mayor cuts their access to water.
“Is this how we treat people who cannot pay as opposed to not wanting to pay?”
Hill-Lewis said restricting the water flow to such households was a viable alternative to simply cutting off the service.
“Our responsibility is to 4.8 million residents in Cape Town. We have to deliver services to them and build infrastructure for them. That requires a system where people pay for the services that they consume.
“We have to have a reliable way of recovering service charges when they are not paid for.”
Community activist Colin Arendse accused the City of working against the poor.
“The City’s anti-poor decision to collect water arrears like this will not pass constitutional muster.
“The right to water is inviolable and a right never to be broken in terms of our Constitution.
“The City is entitled to use other means to collect its arrears, but it cannot be offset against the inalienable right to water which is sacrosanct and cannot be taken away or denied.”
Bellville South Social Activist Godfrey Luyt said the situation was worse for the indigent.
“They get their water cut off because they cannot afford to pay.
“When they go to the City’s offices here in Bellville, they are told they will have to make payment arrangements before their water can be free flowing again.
“For instance recently an old woman who is a pensioner was asked to first pay R3 000 before her water could be switched back on.”
Non-indigent customers whose accounts are in arrears for non-payment of municipal related services have their water supply restricted or reduced to a trickle flow using a flow-restricting disc.
Cape Coloured Congress Secretary General Sakeena Frenchman said the mayor's stance was "an attempt by to find a middle ground to appease the right wing faction that runs the DA"
She said the DA has shown its disregard for the poor over and over.
"We ask that the Mayor understand the grinding poverty that we have to endure, is why we face the indignity of not being able to pay our water bills."
In March 2020 when the first Covid-19 lockdown was announced, the City temporarily suspended restrictions for water debt saying it was acting in good faith.