Note to editors: Below is an extract of remarks for delivery by DA Leader Helen Zille at Mphophomeni in KwaZulu-Natal this morning. Helen was visiting the home of Ms. Xole Zondi which, like all 5 000 houses in the area, gets flooded with sewage every time it rains.

Fellow South Africans,

I am here today because I have heard about the problems you face in this community. I have heard about the raw sewage that floods into your homes every time it rains.

I am here today to tell you that you don't have to live like this if you don't want to. You can use the power of your vote to make a change. You can choose a party that will clean up the mess in Mphophomeni.

This morning I met Ms. Xole Zondi at her home. She showed me where and how the human waste that rises up through her floor when it rains. She told me how it has ruined her family's possessions. She told me how worried she is that one day it will make her house collapse.

She told me that her children can't get from the front door of the house to the road without stepping in sewage. And she told me that sometimes the sewage flows down the road like a river.

Nobody deserves to live like this.

It doesn't have to be this way in Mphophomeni. This has happened because your municipality has neglected the infrastructure in this area. This means that the municipality has neglected you.

The sewage plant here was built in the 1980s. Since then, this township has grown to ten times its original size. But it is still served by the same sewage plant.

That is why you are in the mess you are in. The sewage plant simply cannot cope with the quantity of human waste it has to process. The sewage plant should have been upgraded as the population increased.

On my way here today a local DA activist told me that, when the ANC heard I was coming to Mphophomeni, they arranged a team from the municipality to come here and fix the problem at Ms Zondi's house.  They did not fix the problem.  They just cleaned up on the surface, and the sewage spill came back.

So this morning, while we were on our way here, they came back with a big truck to try to clean up the area before I got here.  And then they tried to stop us from taking photographs as they did so.   The ANC has never bothered to deal with the sewerage crisis before they knew that the DA was coming.  They thought that you would just continue to vote for them anyway.  But this is changing and they are frightened.  There is an election on the 18 May and the ANC knows that people can use the power of their vote to change the party in power, especially if that party has neglected them as badly as the ANC has neglected its loyal voters of Mphophomeni.

If the DA can get this result just by visiting you here, imagine what we could do for you in government.  Now is the time to give us a chance to show you what we can do.  Put us to the test on May 18.  Vote us in.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  If you want us to fix this problem permanently, and not just superficially, you will have to vote us into government here.

Because the only solution to this problem is to build a proper sewage plant in Mphophomeni.

If the DA wins the election here in Mphophomeni, the first thing we will do is find a way to fix the sewage plant. Because we think that what is happening here is a crisis. And we don't think that people deserve to live like this.

Before the DA took power in the City of Cape Town, there was a crisis with the sewerage system there. Raw sewage was seeping out of manholes in the centre of the City. The national Department of Water Affairs warned the City that it was failing to meet national standards.

When the DA came into office, we tripled the City's spending on infrastructure, including sanitation. And we went through proper and transparent tender procedures to make sure that only companies with the expertise to deliver big projects were awarded the contracts.

There is no sewage crisis in Cape Town anymore. In fact, more people in Cape Town have access to sanitation and other basic services than any other metro in the country.

The people of Cape Town escaped a sewage crisis by using the power of their vote. You can do the same thing here in Mphophomeni. Our research tells us that the DA can win the election in uMngeni municipality. But we can't do it without you.

So, whatever you do, make sure you vote on 18 May.

And vote DA.

Because the DA delivers for all!

Issued by the Democratic Alliance, April 1 2011

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