Govan Mbeki Municipality’s mayor talks about water challenges

The Executive Mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, Nhlakanipho Zuma, said the municipality has proof of illegal water connections on farms between Trichardt and Bethal.

He also said the municipality charged those people criminally and removed the illegal connections.

This came after the municipality recently did an audit with Rand Water of the water line running from Trichardt to Bethal.

“We walked and drove through all the farms and found a few leaks, which we fixed,” said Zuma.

“We then also found two or three illegal connections.”

He elaborated on the water crisis that Bethal and eMzinoni are currently facing and said as a result of load-shedding the pump stations cannot pump enough water to let the reservoirs filled.

“That is why people might receive water at night for an hour and then maybe at 01:00, the water is gone again,” said Zuma.

“The electricity crisis in our country is now a pandemic. Not having electricity for 10 to 12 hours daily is negatively affecting the industry.”

He said the municipality is currently working with Rand Water on all the water challenges.

“We are also in a position now that we can say that sabotage is taking place, especially in eMbalenhle south.

“We replaced malfunctioning valves in eMbalenhle and the water began pumping. It was then we realised that the bolts and nuts were removed.

“The next day a water pipe was broken. We noticed someone had hit with sharp objects and we had to replace it again.”

Other water problems include that Bethal Rand is situated higher and the volume of water that Rand Water pumps is not sufficient to fill the reservoir and reach the households in Bethal Rand.

“This water gets pumped from Trichardt and Rand Water used a generator to pump it, but that generator is currently not functioning.

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“We ask the community to be patient with us as we are working with Rand Water on fixing all these challenges.”

Residents were left dry over the weekend as Rand Water was connecting new lines to the Govan Mbeki municipal area, as well as from other municipalities.

Zuma said a senior manager of electricity will now be based in Bethal full-time to help with the electricity issues in Bethal.

“We will upgrade our municipal offices in Bethal to ensure it is safe for our employees,” said Zuma.

“We have already appointed a company to do the work and want to make our building there user-friendly and upgrade the appearance of the building.”

Vandalism to the municipality’s infrastructure is also a big problem and Zuma said they cannot employ a security guard to guard each substation, water pipe and other municipal infrastructure.

“We are working with the police and the law enforcement department to curb this problem.”

He said Govan Mbeki Municipality decided to cut off the water usage to Bethal Dam completely.

“We noticed that they were filling the swimming pool every second day with the fire hydrant.”

The electricity bill for the swimming facilities at Bethal Dam is allegedly also sky-high and in arrears.