PHALABORWA: Ramaphosa asked for help with water chaos

Residents experienced a lack of water for a period of six days due to failure by the Mopani District Municipality to pay Lepelle Northern Water their monthly payment which is said to be around R10 million.

Ward Councillors had no answers to give their residents and this caused a stir in town with many residents turning to the PHALABORWA HERALD for answers. Both the Ba-Phalaborwa and Mopani District Municipality (MDM) were playing the blame game and not giving solutions to what the problem was.

Maite Moakamela, the municipal manager, the person who was supposed to communicate the water issue with the community, did not once issue any communiqué.

The first statement issued by the Mopani District Municipality read: “The Mopani District Municipality is currently engaging with the Lepelle Northern Water to ensure that water supply is fully restored in the tourism town of Phalaborwa and its surrounding townships. “This after Lepelle Northern Water reduced water supply to the area by 30 percent. As the district municipality we are determined to ensure that we continue to service the debt we are having with Lepelle Northern Water. We are also giving the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality support to encourage it to strengthen its revenue collections so that it would be able to pay millions of rand owed to the district municipality. This will enable us to speedily pay off our debt with the Lepelle Northern Water.”

On inquiry by the HERALD, the district municipality spokesperson, Witness Tiva, told the HERALD that MDM paid its monthly payment on Tuesday, October 2, but he contradicted himself on Wednesday by saying, “We have just paid Lepelle this morning and we are waiting for them to turn on the water.”

Read: DWS pays millions to Lepelle Northern Water for completion of Giyani Bulk Water Supply

The HERALD has learnt that MDM needs to pay Lepelle a fee of R30 million every quarter and also a monthly payment of R10 million.

During the failure by MDM to pay the monthly fee, residents were left with no water whatsoever and this caused havoc in town.

The monthly instalment was allegedly paid and water returned to town for the weekend but was cut again on Monday and now residents say that they are quite fed up.

The HERALD attempted to contact Lepelle Northern water Board’s communications officer, Simon Mpamonyane, after Witness Tiva had told the HERALD to speak directly to Lepelle because MDM has paid the money, but could not reach him.

The HERALD has contacted the BaPhalaborwa Municipality but could not get a comment.

The Democratic Alliance Political Head of Mopani, Desiree van der Walt, has now sent letters to the minister of Water Affairs & Sanitation, CoGTA (local Government) Finance and also the presidency asking for ministerial intervention. She also told the HERALD that she would do a member statement and motion in Parliament during the week.

“On Saturday I will be in Phalaborwa and launch a mass petition against the Phalaborwa Municipality, Mopani District Municipality and Lepelle Water for not doing their jobs properly by providing water to the residents – as per their right to basic services – water!” said Desiree.

PHALABORWA HERALD is in possession of copies of letters which were sent to the ministers and the presidency regarding serious intervention.