EFF takes to Giyani streets

EFF Mopani regional coordinator, Theresa Mathye, told the Herald that all of Mopani’s communities suffer under poor water and sanitation infrastructures. “People in Zava and Mageva villages in the Giyani area have boreholes, but they don’t have water, because of a broken circuit breaker. A contractor has now been appointed to fix the water problems after our intervention in Zava and the project will cost R5.4 million. However, the district municipality has refused to tell us when and how the tender was advertised and who the contractor is,” Mathye explained.

Some of their demands include additional water tankers that supply Giyani communities with water. According to Mathye, there are only five tankers supplying the whole region. The EFF said they were unable to hand over their memorandum to Shayi as they were told he was not available.

They refused to give the memorandum to the municipal manager, Tshepo Mogano, who was ready to receive the document. “We will still hand over the document to the executive mayor, that is the only person we want to give it to,” she added.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for MDM, Odas Ngobeni, admitted to the Herald that there are water supply challenges in Giyani, however, they are working tirelessly to resolve the problems.

Ngobeni said that the water challenges have led to the start of the Giyani Water Project by the national government. This project seeks to draw water from Nandoni Dam to Giyani and the minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu has promised that Giyani residents will have water by the end of September.

Also read: September deadline for bulk water will be met

“We have eight water tankers assigned to the Greater Giyani Municipality (GGM) to service our communities. Using water tankers is never a desirable option, for it comes at a high cost. We may not immediately be able to make a commitment that we will add more tankers for GGM. However, through the coordination at the local municipality, we should be able to use the available tankers efficiently and effectively,” he added.

Ngobeni also told the Herald that the name of the contractor appointed for water reticulation in Zava is Chango Business Enterprise. He said the tender was advertised last year and the advertisement is also available on MDM’s website.

“On Thursday, July 7, we had a meeting at the Giyani Police Station with the EFF, SAPS, and the fire department in preparation for the march. The local EFF said they wanted to hand over their memorandum to the municipal manager and not the mayor.“We then allowed the executive mayor to attend a SALGA meeting on the day of the demonstration.

We were surprised on the day of the demonstration when Thembi Msane, a member of parliament, said they wanted to hand it over to the mayor. All of this is recorded in the minutes of the meeting. Not having the memorandum makes it difficult for us to respond to something that we have not received,” concluded Ngobeni.