The water crisis in most parts of the country couldn’t have come at a more propitious time than on the verge of the local government elections. Granted, the El Niño phenomenon, which is virtually scorching the Earth dry, has played a role in our water woes and will continue to do so for a long time. But, as President Cyril Ramaphosa admitted in Bronkhorstspruit, the water shortage in the area was a result of municipal leadership failures.
All the people who have gone without water for so long or endured other forms of service delivery neglect, go into the 4 November elections armed with knowledge about what they want for their areas. This is information gathered from their lived experiences of negotiating portholes, swimming against sewage spillage and going without electricity for long periods, amid many other signs of municipal dysfunction.
Perhaps for the first time since the watershed 1994 national elections, the decision people make in days from now will see them take power back into their own hands.
No amount of electioneering spin can fool the electorate anymore.
Unfortunately for the silvertongued politicians, who have the charm of snake-oil salesmen, the people have woken up to their wiles. They have seen through their empty promises and, sometimes, unvarnished lies.
The signs on the ground bear all the hallmarks of people finally realising they are on their own. They have gone the route of standing as independent candidates because the councillors they entrusted with their civic hopes have betrayed them.
The only sliver of hope politicians have of returning to power is by entering into coalitions. Wherever one looks in the country, be it Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg or Buffalo City, strange bedfellows are looking at ways to work together after 4 November.
This is no declaration made with the benefit of possessing a crystal ball but, as the cliché goes, the writing is on the wall — no party is likely to garner a majority anywhere in the country.
And that is all thanks to the municipalities who have turned city halls into their own fiefdoms, at the expense of suffering ratepayers.
Local government is at the coalface of service delivery and the sight people have been exposed to is not pretty. Even if hope were to abound, it is clear the city fathers are not to be trusted.
The time for a change of guard is well-nigh.
People cannot be fooled for this long while they sit in neighbourhoods with no piped water or decent sanitation when, on the other side of the equation, their elected representatives live in well-lit gated golf and equestrian estates.
The beauty of the elections is that decisions are made at the ballot, not through the proverbial bullet.
Enough. No more.