Blyvoor’s water reconnected for the time being

This week, the municipality did an about-turn on its stance toward Blyvoor when it agreed to reconnect the mining town’s water after almost five weeks.

On the afternoon of 11 June, less than 24 hours before an urgent high court application by the organisation Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) was to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria, parties involved in the matter reached an interim settlement agreement.  In the agreement, the municipality instructed Rand Water to reconnect the water supply by no later than 15 June 2015 (Monday).

The mine’s liquidator undertook to commission a technical assessment to identify possible leakages in the water reticulation network and determine the actual monthly consumption of water at Blyvooruitzicht. The liquidator had also agreed to pay R600 000 to the municipality towards water usage for the period from the reconnection of the piped water supply. This amount had already been paid to the municipality by the next morning.

All parties, including LHR and the South African Human Rights Commission, will reconvene by no later than 25 July to map out long-term solutions to the supply of water to the Blyvooruitzicht community and how the municipality will charge them for this water. This ground-breaking deal came after an intense engagement process that was facilitated by the MEC for Cooperative Governance Traditional Affairs and Human Settlement, Mr Jacob Mamabolo and the South African Human Rights Commission.

“We are very happy with the outcome of this engagement process and remain hopeful that a long-term solution will be found through a thorough and meticulous process of meaningful engagement between the parties,” Osmond Mngomezulu, head of LHR’s Environmental Rights Programme, said shortly after the agreement was signed.

On Friday, members of the Human Rights Commission visited Blyvoor with the well-known environmentalist, Ms Mariette Liefferink. In addition to visiting places linked to environmental problems such as slimes dams, they also spoke to residents that were waiting at some of the water tanks put up by the municipality after the supply was disconnected. The residents reported that they often had to wait for days for the municipality to bring them water.

“What the people here on the ground have shown us is that the municipality has not spoken the whole truth about the matter,” a human rights lawyer, Mr Danzel van Zyl, told the Herald during the course of the visit. He said the organisation wanted to assist in finding a permanent solution to Blyvoor’s problems.

On Monday, the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Mr Jacob Mamabolo and various national media houses visited Blyvoor to ascertain whether the water had indeed been reconnected, in line with the agreement. At the time, however, employees of the mine’s liquidator were still doing final repairs to water pipes that were stolen while the water was disconnected.

As far as could be determined, most of Blyvoor had water again by late Monday afternoon.