Madibeng’s water and sanitation crisis prompts DA to lay charges against top two officials
The DA has laid criminal charges against Madibeng local municipality mayor Jostina Mothibe, and municipal manager Morris Maluleka, for their alleged role in the municipality’s continuing water and sanitation crisis. The Madibeng district municipality, which includes the town of Brits, has suffered sporadic water outages as long ago as 2012. This North West municipality has posted monthly warnings of water outages and toxic piped water since that year. Some of the interruptions have lasted for several months. In 2014, three people died from water-related illnesses and the resulting community protests and clashes with police resulted in more deaths. In June 2015, Trevor Balzer, the deputy director-general in the Department of Water and Sanitation, told a local newspaper, the Kormorant, that by 2017, Madibeng would have some of the cleanest water in the country due to sophisticated infrastructure and ozone treatment. However, he conceded that maintenance was "a challenge". DA councillo...
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