Good Party’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town Brett Herron took his election campaign trail to Rocklands on Wednesday.
Herron shared the story of a five-year old boy, who asked his caregiver for water, but the little boy could not have his thirst quenched as the homeowner’s water was cut-off.
This, he said, shattered him, as he emphasised that access to water is a basic human right.
A pensioner in the area shared that his water bill is R149 000. Herron then called on his team to collect the water bills of those with high tariffs and committed to addressing the issue.
Herron said Good Party is focused on creating a more caring and more connected city.
“The people of Cape Town are far more connected to the suffering of other people than our current government is. We need a government that has a sense of Ubuntu.
“When I’m elected as mayor, there will be a couple of things that will need to be addressed immediately. We have to restructure the City of Cape Town’s budgeting process and tariffs, so that water and electricity is affordable. Water and electricity is a basic human right and we are entitled to it in terms of the Constitution, and so it should be provided in an affordable way,” said Herron.
He stressed that no one should be denied access to water and electricity because they cannot afford the high tariffs.
Herron said another focus will be getting affordable housing, using public land, back on track.
“All of those projects, relating to affordable housing on public land, that were cancelled soon after we left office (City of Cape Town) have to be reinstated.
“The third thing that I will tackle is infrastructure. Wherever you go on the Cape Flats and townships, all you see is broken roads and infrastructure, the play parks are broken and the City’s council rental stock is in a terrible condition. Of the rental stock that I’ve seen include flats that have been burnt out because electricity mains exploded and the City’s never replaced those. I’ve also seen flats were the sewerage is running down from the top floor unit to the ground floor unit,” said Herron.