Durban — The Democratic Alliance in eThekwini has invited eThekwini Municipality to see how quickly the City of Cape Town attends to sewage leaks at their beaches.
This comes after eThekwini Municipality issued a statement wishing the City of Cape Town a "speedy recovery" after a number of sewage spills in the city.
eThekwini DA's caucus leader, Thabani Mthethwa, ridiculed the statement as "childish and myopic".
He said the ANC should focus their energy on fixing infrastructure instead of issuing frivolous and petty statements about other municipalities.
"The statement by councillor Madlala was a poor attempt at humour which was met by a ferocious backlash on social media by members of the public, and rightfully so.
“DA City of Cape Town councillor, Alex Lansdowne, who heads up the Mayoral Task Team on Waterways, pointed out to the eThekwini Municipality that 90% of sewage leaks in Cape Town are attended to within two hours of reporting. He further invited councillor Madlala and eThekwini to come to Cape Town and see for themselves. This was swiftly rejected by eThekwini with a simple ‘no thanks’," said Mthethwa.
Mthethwa said it was a simple fact that this tourism season has been a disaster for eThekwini.
"Beaches that were supposed to be open by December 1, 2022 were not, and still today there remains extreme concern about water quality," he said.
He added that the DA was hopeful that the ANC in eThekwini will take up their offer and receive assistance from the City of Cape Town on how to best manage the continued nightmare that people have been forced to live with for so long.
The City of Cape Town later announced the reopening of the Strand and Blaauwberg beaches after both were closed because of sewage-related issues.
Daily News