Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos says Mmusi Maimane’s intervention in the water-crisis facing the City of Cape Town is not only ill-advised, it has no constitutional authority.
He argues that Maimane’s decision will make a bad situation even worse. On Wednesday, Maimane announced that he will head a five-member drought crisis team.
With most dams having now dropped below 15% threshold, the city predicts that taps will run dry on April 12th.
Maimane however hopes it won’t come to that, saying he will unveil a five member drought crisis team which he will lead in a bid to prevent Day Zero. The team includes Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and City of Cape Town deputy mayor Ian Nielsen. Another move, that he completely side-lined Mayor Patricia de Lille has baffled both critics and analysts.
De Vos says Maimane has not been elected to any position in the city or province. “This exacerbates the problem, because the leader of the opposition who’s not a member of either the province or the city is giving instructions on how the city must deal with the water crisis and he says he will take overall control of the management of this. Legally and constitutionally he cannot do that because he does not have an elected position in the city or the province, neither does he have a position in national government who must also deal with the crisis.”
Maimane’s announcement of a new team came just days after Zille had done the same, also causing confusion.
“We don’t know is it the leader of the opposition who is in charge, is the Premier Helen Zille in charge, we know it’s not the mayor who’s in charge,” expressed de Vos.
De Vos believes that the looming water crisis has also exposed the lack of co-operation between the three spheres of Government. He says the situation has not only failed the people of Cape Town, but exposes the Government’s failure to live up to its obligations in Chapter 3 of the Constitution.
However, Maimane has labelled critics of his intervention as misguided. “We can ensure that we work alongside the city to make sure that we defeat day zero and therefore it is my responsibility to in fact ensure that we can overcome this crisis,” says Maimane.
It remains to be seen whether Maimane’s intervention will help the city avoid its taps running dry.
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