Phalaborwa residents have no water in heatwave

On the same day the local civil organisation, Let’s Change BaPhalaborwa (LCBP), and members of the community gathered outside the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality’s (BPM) offices demonstrating their anger at the municipality’s inability to provide services.

Also on Friday, Limpopo’s FF Plus leader, Marcell Maritz, accompanied by local VF Plus councillor, Giel van Niekerk, visited the Phalaborwa Police Station to open a criminal case against the BPM’s mayor, Clr Merriam Malatji, and the acting municipal manager, Dr Kgoshi Lucas Pilusa for neglecting their oversight role to provide services to residents. “The municipality is by law obligated to provide water suitable for drinking to residents,” Maritz said afterward.

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Roger Ferguson of LCBP told the Herald that the wild cat protest outside the BPM reflected the frustration of residents especially those living in wards 11 and 12 who go without power and water for days on end. He said their demands include a report on the progress made in giving effect to the Nersa Corrective Action Plan, including the capital expenditure items for electricity as set out in the current capital budget of BPM; and a report on progress made on the commitments made to the Public Protector with respect to water, sanitation, and electricity.

A spokesperson for BPM, Jonas Mahesu, said the outages earlier the week that led to the protest were a result of a faulty electrical cable that contributed to the supply of water. He said the problem was eventually solved and repaired by the BPM technical team. BPM used its Facebook page to inform residents of the situation. The demonstrators and the municipality agreed to meet on Tuesday, November 28 to discuss the problems. At the time of going to print on Tuesday, the meeting had not yet started.