IT HAS not been a month since Mhlathuze installed water infrastructure in some parts of the Zululand District to help aid communities that still don’t have running water and trouble has started.
The IFP has called on the Office of the Public Protector to investigate how Mhlathuze Water spent more than R100million meant for drought relief and delivery of water in the Zululand area.
IFP mayor in the Zululand District Municipality, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, claims that the money has been diverted.
The mayor said that despite large amounts of money having been spent, there is actually nothing on the sites that was promised.
In a letter to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Mayor Buthelezi wrote: “The municipality is of the view that resources from the national fiscus meant for poor communities have been diverted elsewhere. ”
The corporate communications manager for Mhlathuze Water, Siyabonga Maphumulo, said that the allegations were not true, he even went as far as saying: “these allegations would be laughable were they not so tragic”.
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Mr Maphumulo said that for the first time more than 6000 homes now have access to clean running water in Nongoma and Abaqulusi.
“While it is possible for some to feign blindness to the positive impacts that the water infrastructure project has brought to the Zululand District, the beneficiaries of this project are far wiser and have welcomed with glee the results of a project that has rescued them from the indignity of drawing water from rivers frequented by livestock,” he said responding to the media.
Mr Maphumulo said that the chief executive of Mhlathuze Water, Mthokozisi Duze, invited Mayor Buthelezi on a sight inspection of some of the projects being implemented but that the mayor never went.
