Embattled mayor responds to criticism as taps run dry

“WHAT happened, happened accidentally and I understand the public’s pain.”

This is what Buffalo City Metro (BCM) mayor Alfred Mtsi said when commenting about the water crisis in the metro.

“This is crazy, does BCM even care about us, does the mayor care? It surely does not look like it. The mayor probably has water at his house.”

When asked whether his house in the suburb of Greenfields was affected by the water outage, Mtsi said this was an unfair question.

“Just because I have water at my house, it does not mean I am not affected by this. When citizens are affected I have to account . I did not sleep on Monday night. I was lying awake thinking of ways to attend to this matter,” he said.

By the time of writing last night, Greenfields and certain parts of Mdantsane were among the few areas that still had water.

Mtsi claims he has been in touch with those working at Umzonyana dam, getting constant updates.

“I have also instructed the communications team to update the public through electronic media and radio stations. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” he added.

On Monday the Daily Dispatch received two updates from the metro’s communications team, both indicating the problem would be resolved by yesterday morning. Yesterday one update was sent at around 3pm saying it would take between three and six days for the system to fully recover.