ANC ‘must go to nearest hell’, says thirsty Limpopo resident

In spite of having been completed six years ago, De Hoop Dam – one of the most expensive and biggest dams in South Africa – does not provide clean, running water to the 1.2 million people in Sekhukhune, Limpopo.

De Hoop is a gravity dam on the Steelpoort River near Burgersfort and was constructed on a budget of R3.4 billion.

The project involved innovative solutions in energy dissipation and the use of a roller-compacted concrete, with the sole purpose of enabling extraction from rich mineral deposits by the 28 mining houses in the region. The methods used won the department of water affairs a Fulton Award.

The completion of the dam was delayed by four years, to 2014, due to supply chain, technical and equipment problems, deficient environmental impact studies, resettlement of families and strikes.

It was finally handed over to the community a few weeks before the 2014 local government elections by then president Jacob Zuma.

Bolsheviks party national acting secretary Seun Mogotji said yesterday: “But six years after the completion and the elections, more than 1.2 million thirsty Sekhukhune residents are still waiting with bated breath for clean, running water to be delivered on their doorstep as promised by Zuma and the ANC.”

Mogotji said the handing over of the dam was “just an ANC election gimmick aimed at scoring cheap political points ahead of the elections”.

“But we are saying their empty promises will cost them votes, come the local government elections next year,” he said.

Even villages adjacent to the dam are struggling for water.

A resident in Jane Furse, Saggie Sepela, whose grandmother, Seodi Sepela, 55, died recently after she fell into a fountain, said getting clean water was a daily challenge.

“I have lost my grandmother… because all the water projects have collapsed.

“We are sick and tired of the many excuses by the ANC-run municipalities.

“If this is the price we pay for voting for the ANC, the party must just go to the nearest hell because that is where it belongs.

“ANC bigwigs visit our houses before elections and try to entice us into voting for them. They promise everything during the door-to-door campaigns, including the
so-called ‘better life for all’.

“We are saying to the ANC and their political bigwigs that their empty promises will, this time around, cost them vital votes,” added Sepela.

Limpopo water and sanitation head Lucy Kobe said the construction of an eight megalitre package plant at the Flag Boshielo Dam was 86% complete and that by December, more than 156 communities adjacent to the dam would have clean, running water.

“Several other projects at the De Hoop and Nandoni dams are also nearing completion,” Kobe said during a media tour at Flag Boshielo Dam last week.

“Villages and areas set to benefit from this projects are Moutse East and West, Polokwane, Jane Furse, Burgersfort, Makhado, Giyani, Malamulele, Thohoyandou,  Phalaborwa, Nwamitwa and Bolobedu.”
– news@citizen.co.za

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