Premier determined to drill boreholes for fresh water

Alex Matlala

LIMPOPO – LIMPOPO premier, Stanley Mathabatha will drill boreholes in Tzaneen in an effort to relieve the chronic water shortages in the area.

Mathabatha was speaking during a community protest march in N’wamitwa outside Tzaneen last week.

The area has experienced service delivery protest marches since Monday.

This saw schools and other vital government offices temporarily closed as angry residents blockaded all roads leading to the town with burning tyres, huge rocks and piles of wood. Over 5 000 people, including school learners from various villages in the N’wamitwa area, protested the poor service delivery dressed in both ANC and EFF regalia.

In the main, the residents wanted government to provide them with clean running water and electricity in their houses. The residents accused the district municipality in Mopani of having drilled boreholes that had no water. They claimed the district municipality had spent over R500 million in the past ten years for boreholes, but only 15% of these new boreholes provided water to the communities. The residents claimed because of this lack of the municipality to meet their basic service demands, residents were forced to draw water from rivers to use for cooking and cleaning. This, they said, gave rise to water borne diseases such as cholera. An activist and former chairperson for the water committee in the area, Eugene Baloyi, told Mathabatha that his government had a tendency to employ service providers who delivered poor workmanship or shoddy work and ran away with the project money without giving the residents the expected end product. Baloyi said the area had reservoirs and maturation tanks which had no water for a period of 10 years. He said most houses in the area had electricity, but it had not been switched on because the service provider also ran away with money. “Although we appreciate the fact that you came after hearing about our plight, we want to urge the government to refrain from appointing thugs and thieves as service providers. Appoint genuine companies that would bring water to our community as promised,” said Baloyi to a thunderous applause by the more than 1 000 villagers present at the N’wamitwa sports ground.

A 52-year old mother of six told CV during the march that her daughter was raped by a group of people while en route to buy water from the richer families who had boreholes in their yards. She said her daughter was one of the many women who had been, and would be, raped almost every night while going to fetch firewood in the bushes or water from neighbours.

Mopani mayor, Nkakareng Rakgoale, said she had set aside R500 million to address water and sanitation problems in the region.

Rakgoale said the money would be used to ensure there was clean running water for everyone on a daily basis.

In response, Mathabatha, who is also the Limpopo ANC provincial chairperson, said he had tasked Lepelle Northern Water to ensure that the residents of N’wamitwa had access to clean running water. Mathabatha said he believed Lepelle, which is a government water service parastatal with more than 20 years of good service, would work closely with the Mopani District Municipality to enrich the lives of N’wamitwa residents by giving them access to clean running water, providing for their basic needs like a government should.

“These boreholes would give service to you while government constructs a dam in your area. We have tasked Lepelle and the Mopani districts’ municipalities together with the department of water and sanitation to come to your rescue,” said Mathabatha to the delight of the residents.

Lepelle Northern Water CEO, Pheneus Legodi, said work to restore the water services in the area would begin by the end of the month. Legodi said Lepelle would soon start drilling boreholes in N’wamitwa as a medium term measure pending the construction of a multi-million rand dam in the area.

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