Water project not ‘impressive’

Perhaps, by ANC standards, a project which goes 900% over budget and is still not delivered seven years after it should have been finished, is impressive.

Deputy President Paul Mashatile seemed to think so when he had a look at the Giyani Bulk Water project in Limpopo. Progress was impressive, he said, because “I have seen people drinking water, as promised by the department”.

Except, this R500 million project to bring water to 24 communities should have been completed in 2017, after being started in 2014. So far, only nine villages have their water and officials say completion is still two years off. Not only that, costs have ballooned to R4.5 billion.

Limpopo’s Forum for Limpopo Entrepreneurs has clearly had enough. Its provincial secretary, Siviko Mabunda, is spot-on when he says the scheme has been nothing more than an ANC “cash cow” to bankroll their election campaigns and that Mashatile’s visit was yet another in a list of pointless “inspections” done by senior politicians.

People still don’t have water and have to get supplies from streams and wells, sometimes competing with wild and domestic animals. That is nowhere near the “better life for all” which your party has been promising South Africans, Comrade Deputy President.

ALSO READ: ‘They are late’ – Limpopo residents tired of politicians’ promises as Mashatile visits Giyani water project