“I wrote a letter to the municipality on October 5 after two weeks of no water,” said Christelle Strijdom of Modjadjiskloof. Her letter was addressed to the mayor and municipal manager. In the letter, she raises the issue that she has been without water for the last two weeks. “Excuses from your side are load shedding and no fuel for generators,” Strijdom wrote. The Herald contacted the Greater Letaba Municipality spokesperson, Lovers Maenetja, regarding the lack of fuel for the generators.
She said that the funding for the generators must come from Lepelle Northern Water (LNW) as they have received the funding for the fuel. Stijdom also sent LNW questions regarding the lack of water. “I asked them how many hours Lepelle pumps. Is it 24 hours? I also stated that load shedding shouldn’t be a problem as they have received funding for fuel for the generators,” Strijdom said. “We get our water from Magoebaskloof Dam and the dam is at 100.1% (as per government readings).
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“They stated that they cannot get the reservoirs levels up. But if there is no water in the system, it is not possible to drop the reservoir level?” she asked. “I want to know how they are pumping water and where is the water going?” she said. Another resident, Chantèl Du Toit told the Herald there is a leak in the street towards King’s Court. “This leak has been reported almost five months ago. When we have a bit
of water, it leaks away.
“We had no water since mid-September. On Saturday we got some water in the taps but on Tuesday afternoon the pressure was low again,” she said. Herald received screenshots of the communication between the residents, the municipality, and LNW. The conversation showed that the municipality and LNW stated that the shortage of diesel is the main reason for Politsi, Modjadjiskloof, and Kgapane not having water, as there have been high levels of load shedding.
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Other communication showed the municipality stating that in order to have the issue solved, would require budget reprioritisation and treasury approvals. The residents were also asked to send their home addresses in order to get water from water tankers which they never received, the residents say. Herald also contacted LNW on the matter of the generator fuel funding. They asked for 48 hours to respond. The Herald will publish the response next week.
