I am honoured to be here with you today. I am humbled that you asked me to visit you to see the challenges you face.

When I look around me, I see a place full of potential. I see people who care about the conditions they live in, people who want something better.

I want you to know that you do not have to put up with the situation you find yourselves in. We have a Constitution that places an obligation on government to do all it can to provide basic services.

But toyi-toying and protest will not solve these problems. The only way is to choose a party that takes your constitutional rights seriously.

As a Premier and a former Mayor, I know that meeting this obligation is not always easy. And I understand that service delivery challenges cannot be met overnight.

It requires forward planning, it requires sound financial management, it requires a zero-tolerance approach to corruption. Above all, it requires putting the interests of the people before the interests of the party in power.

When I read the article in the East Coast Fever I could see immediately that these basic functions of government were not being met.

When sewerage is flowing in the streets and children are playing in faeces, when people go without running water for days at a time, it is clear that a municipality is failing its citizens drastically.

The imminent danger of a Cholera outbreak should galvanise every government official and councillor into action. This is a state of emergency. And yet, very little gets done.

From what I have been told by my DA colleagues in the municipality, up to 90% of the officials in this municipality were appointed not for their skills, but their connection to the ANC.

This explains why you are in this situation. Unless the right people are appointed in the right positions, service delivery will not happen.

Here in Kokstad, the DA is not in power, it is in opposition. As an opposition party we are limited in what we can do to effect better service delivery. But we can make a difference.

I understand that your DA Councillor, Mr Francois Rodgers, was instrumental in setting up the Water Crisis Committee, the first attempt by the municipality to look seriously at the situation. Because of his intervention, the municipality appointed Umgeni Water which has led to some improvement in water management and reticulation.

But it is clear that much more needs to be done.

From my side, I will write to the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Sicelo Shiceka, requesting him to look into the situation in this municipality.

Mr Shiceka, since his appointment, has been overly pre-occupied with conditions in Cape Town where the DA governs, despite the City being rated number one in the country for service delivery.

Even his Cabinet Colleague, Water Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica, this week praised Cape Town for its management and delivery of water. She said it was very encouraging to find a municipality that appreciated its constitutional mandate to supply water and sanitation services.

Mr Shiceka's obsession with Cape Town has nothing to with conditions on the ground, but everything to do with trying to smear his political opponents. This is why his priorities are wrong. He targets municipalities that work and neglects those, like this one, that are in dire straits.

I hope that Mr Shiceka is able to look past politics and see what he can do for a municipality where the majority of the people are genuinely in need of services.

Ultimately, the best chance of changing the situation here is to vote out the party that has failed you. That is the essence of democracy.

I know that the next local election is far away but I hope that, when the time comes, you will see that you have a choice here in Shayamoya.

You can choose a party that puts the interest of a few politically connected-individuals first. Or you can choose a party that appoints people with the expertise to make sure everybody benefits from good service delivery.

This is an extract from a speech delivered by Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille to the community of Shayamoya in the Kokstad municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, November 29 2009

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