Much to everyone’s surprise, all parties, including municipal representatives, attended the monthly meeting of the Ngwathe Task Team, as prescribed by the court, for the first time on Wednesday last week.
The municipal manager, Mr Lucky Kamolane, as well as the municipality’s chief financial officer and the technical director, were present at the meeting for the first time since the team was established in November last year. According to the court order given on 5 June 2014, and confirmed on 23 October 2014, in favour of the Parys Development Forum, the team, with all its representatives, are to meet once a month to implement the so-called turn-around strategy for Ngwathe.
According to Marius Pieters, chairperson of the development forum, the good news for residents is that the expansion of the current water purification plant in Parys will be completed by the end of October this year at the latest. The technology used for the expansion is a first in Africa and has already proved to be a success in plants all over the world.
This will bring an end to the serious water shortages experienced in Parys with the current plant that has reached its maximum capacity and can no longer supply enough water for the demand. The expansion of the water purification plant will add an extra 10 megalitres of water to the 15 megalitres currently purified at the plant. Less space and fewer chemicals are used in the expansion than in a conventional plant. It operates automatically, under normal circumstances, meaning more, better quality water, and hopefully also more regular maintenance on the rest of the plant.
Plans have been put in place to specifically address sewage spills in the Vaal River. The work done at the sewerage plant will be completed within the next few months so that the outflow will comply with environmental specifications.
Vredefort’s sewerage plant will soon also be fully operational for the first time in 5 years. With regard to the outstanding Eskom account, the forum has take note that Ngwathe Municipality is negotiating at national level to address its outstanding account by paying at least part of it. A payment plan was approved by council on Friday and the hope is that Eskom will accept the offer.
Eskom has postponed the cutting of bulk electricity supply to Ngwathe on a scheduled daily basis, pending the outcome of municipal interventions to come up with an acceptable payment plan during this period. If Eskom does not accept Ngwathe’s payment plan and court rules that Eskom can continue, it will mean that Parys, Vredefort, Heilbron, Edenville and Koppies will have no electricity from 06:00-10:00 and again from 17:00-21:00 on a daily basis.
Over weekends, bulk electricity supply will be interrupted from 07:00-10:00 and again from 17:00-20:00. One of the suggestions on the table is to get Smart meters for all Ngwathe households to stop electricity theft – a big problem within Ngwathe.
Council’s Ad Hoc Committee would have met with the departments of energy and local government at both national and provincial level on Wednesday to discuss and investigate the possibilities of installing the Smart meters. The task team also talked about the complaints from businesses and the public with regard to the yellow marked lines in the central business area and the resultant shortage of parking space. On Monday, the team promised that this would be addressed. It also announced that Sedtrade is planning to open the bridge to the industrial area and Tumahole towards the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the emergency numbers for the Ngwathe Fire Brigade and Emergency Services that were out of order, have now been fixed and are back in operation.
