Sihle Zikalala responds to suggestion he should have queued for water with others in the community

KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala has noted suggestions he and his family should have queued for water like the rest of his community.

This after a video emerged of a tanker delivering water to his north coast home, amid water shortages after devastating floods in the province.

While the premier slammed suggestions of preferential treatment and claimed it was “blatant propaganda, uncalled for, mischievous and malicious”, some on social media suggested he should have just stood in line with everyone else affected by water outages.

“Next time, Premier Zikalala, to avoid the hullabaloo have the water tanker park on a neutral spot like a community hall and queue together with your neighbours, jerrycan in hand (even if you already had water). This simple action would speak volumes about the type of leader you are,” said one user.

Zikala responded, saying the point was taken.

La Mercy resident Riyashan Owen Pather questioned how the premier had arranged the “private tanker”, meant to supply water to affected communities, while La Mercy Civic and Ratepayers Association chairperson Ravi Ramsundar claimed community members were prevented from getting water from the tanker and told “the water was for the premier only”.

“This issue is more than just about corruption. This issue is about a fight for survival in the fight for access to resources to which every person is entitled as a basic human right.

“The LMRCA will not stand by idly and watch an injustice perpetrated. Nepotism and corruption must be targeted at grassroots level and will not be tolerated,” he said.

However, Zikalala claimed the video was “carefully choreographed and strategically selected to create a false narrative to distract from the intervention the premier did first to communities in his neighbourhood who asked him for assistance knowing he lived in the area”.

He said his wife and children had collected water in buckets in the days after supply interruptions, something he was familiar with, having collected water the same way growing up.

The fiasco sparked strong debate on social media.

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.