We want water

Standerton and Sakhile residents have been experiencing problems with water and electricity for the last couple of months.

The problem seems to be worsening and locals are getting impatient.
Those who do have water complain that the tap water is dirty.
“My children are sick because of this water,” a Kosmospark resident said.
“We have to buy water daily because this tap water is dirty and the municipality can’t expect us to pay rent if they fail to even provide us with clean water,” another local said.
The community of Ward 5 marched to the Sakhile Municipal offices on Tuesday morning.
Their complaint is that the municipality is disregarding their basic right to the supply of clean water.
They have been without water for five days.
In some parts of Ext 2 residents have been without water for almost a year.
The Lekwa Municipality issued pamphlets informing the community that they are doing all in their power to fix the problem.
The councillor told residents at a meeting on Monday morning, that he was not aware of the problem, but would speak to the relevant officials.
He took some of the community members to accompany him to a meeting with the officials.
The councillor met again with the residents on Monday afternoon, but they were not satisfied with the answers and decided to march to the Lekwa Municipal offices in Sakhile on Tuesday morning.
“No one came to us to tell us that we are not going to have water and reasons as to why we don’t have water,” a local said.
The councillor, in finding a temporary solution to the problem, directed water trucks to provide water.
The community however does not want water from the tankers.
“We don’t want this dirty water, we want water from the tap,” a resident said.
The aim of the march to the municipal offices was to get answers from Mr Themba Gogwane, the head of the Technical Services Department.
They arrived at the municipal offices and were told that he was not available, as he was in Nelspruit.
The residents refused to leave the premises until someone addressed them.
The Executive Mayor, Ms Caroline Morajane, The Municipal Manager, Mr Linda Tshabalala and other council members arrived after a couple of hours with Mr Themba Ggwane.
The mayor apologised to the community and assured them the municipality is doing all in their power to solve their problem.

“We don’t want the dirty water,” a local shouted from the crowd.
According to Mr Tshabalala, the problem is caused by ageing infrastructure.
“Another cause is that the water cleaning plant is small and can no longer provide for the big water demand in Standerton.
“The problem will be fixed after the national budget speech,” he said.
According to Mr Gogwane, the water is not dirty.
“The water is not dirty, it appears dirty after the pipes have stayed some time without water, when they become rusty.
“It usually clears after a day or two,” he said.
According to a local, the previous executive management was better that the current one.
“This never happened during the previous executive management , they were bad, but this executive is worse because they cannot even provide us with basic services like clean water,” a resident said.
Mr Tshabalala defended the current executive management.
“The reason we have these problems now is because the previous executive did not have a plan to prevent this problem.
The residents wanted to find running water when they left the municipal premises and were told that they have water.