It’s kind of sad that the Western Cape’s drought situation has become a political struggle.

Yesterday, South Africa’s two popular parties, the ANC and DA, were at each others’ throats once again.

A shambles, the DA’s federal executive had given councillors permission to support an ANC motion of no confidence in Patricia de Lille, shortly before the ANC withdrew the motion.

Read about that here.

The initial reason for the motion was because of de Lille’s failure in dealing with the water situation, among other things.

Now the ANC has stated that it wants the national government to intervene in the running of both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape province.

Errr, as if you can assume that you’re wanted? Let’s continue, from News24:

The ANC said [after withdrawing its motion] it would rather write to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Des van Rooyen to intervene in the province and metro.

“The DA has prioritised factionalism over the needs of the people of the Western Cape. They are collectively responsible for this water crisis,” it said in a statement.

“It is for this reason that the ANC will have to withdraw its motion of no confidence in today’s council meeting and instead call for the national government through minister of Cogta to [invoke] section 100 of the Constitution and put both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial administration… under administration by national government.”

Haven’t heard Des’s name in a while, hey? Scared? Well, Dudu Myeni, the lady who ran SAA into the ground is involved in some water stuff, too – read here.

The thing is, it’s written into the Constitution: Section 100 “allows for national government to “intervene” in the running of a province for 180 days if it cannot fulfil its Constitutional obligations”:

It does not use the term administration, which would involve the dissolving of the provincial legislature.

A province though is allowed to place a city council under administration by Section 139 of the Constitution, if it cannot execute its Constitutional mandate.

ANC caucus leader Xolani Sotashe explained that their request was based on “the numerous reports of alleged corruption in the city, as well as the Auditor-General’s recent unqualified audit with findings”.

As if the ANC is any better:

“These people have squandered millions that should have been going to certain projects. They have chowed the money and things can’t be normal after that.”

Pot. Kettle. Black.

The issue was not one of insolvency, but of corruption and an inability to manage the city’s issues, which “the provincial government has failed to address”.

“If the other spheres of government does (sic) not intervene in terms of helping the city, we will be [on the way] to bankruptcy and the city will collapse.”

Of course, the Western Cape’s Premier, Helen Zille, was quick to dismiss the ANC’s plans, and thankfully she didn’t take to Twitter to share her thoughts.

Rather, she spoke to News24:

“This is no time to play Constitutional games.

“There is not a single issue in which we have failed in our Constitutional mandate, which is oversight, and managing the emergency.

“The sphere of government that has not fulfilled its mandate, is national government for failing to supply adequate bulk water to the City of Cape Town.”

Okay, Miss Colonial Apologist – but she does have a point:

“The one who has failed is national government. It should be the other way around, we should put them under administration.

“I wish I could place them under administration.”

Oh, there’s the snark.

Can we please just be adults and sort out the situation before it’s too late? This dry shampoo vibe isn’t working for me as well as I thought it would.

[source:news24]