Some illegal water tankers impounded

According to René Pohl, caucus leader for the Democratic Alliance (DA) at the GTM, it was admitted at this meeting that the water crisis was out of control. Pohl stated that police assistance was requested regarding the water trucks and that two water trucks have since been impounded. In a statement released by Pohl on Tuesday, it is said that the DA laid a complaint with the Public Protector against GTM for negligence to secure water outlets and failure to provide water to communities.

“Ongoing water shortages exacerbated by load shedding have increased theft of water by syndicates. Theft occurs in broad daylight from water hydrants in residential areas and the stolen water is transported in Jojo tanks on trucks,” Pohl stated. “The DA receives multiple complaints from residents daily who are also intimidated by the syndicates. We started our own investigations and encouraged residents to report all suspicious activities and reported our findings to the municipality,” says Pohl. According to the statement two criminal cases were opened, one in Letsitele in May 2022 and one recently in Tzaneen.

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“The municipality’s refusal to act raised serious concerns and it became evident that there is no detailed plan in place or the political will to combat crime. Instead, the municipality’s negligence created an ideal environment for corruption and criminal acts to take place,” Pohl stated. “We further requested residents to donate locks for the fire hydrants to curtail further theft. The DA is committed to working with communities to solve the water crisis and will not be deterred by intimidation,” Pohl’s statement concluded.

André Moss from the Freedom Front Plus said: “I believe that the illegal water tankers operating in the Tzaneen suburbs are a problem that was created by the GTM and Mopani District Municipality’s failure to provide adequate water to the rural communities and the result of just issuing permits to water tankers without adequate control measures in place to monitor the situation.” “At the meeting of water tankers, it was abundantly clear that operating these water tankers is a profitable business and they would not want to stop their operations.

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GTM issued permits without monitoring the tankers and it was agreed that all tankers would draw water from the Disaster Management premises. The FF Plus assisted communities in securing lockable boxes since November last year and a lot of hydrants were locked with the community’s assistance,” says Moss. “We applaud the community for their vigilance and claiming back their suburbs by chasing the tankers out of Aqua Park,” Moss concluded.

Vutivi Makhubela, media liaison for the GTM could not be reached for comment on the outcome of the water tanker engagement session at the time of going to press on Wednesday. “We are gravely concerned about the conduct of private water tanker operators using fire hydrants as water sources. Although we acknowledge the water crisis faced by our communities, especially in the rural communities, we cannot condone the conduct of the operators. We have scheduled a high-level internal meeting to work on a sustainable solution to this problem. The outcomes of this meeting will inform our approach towards addressing this issue,” Makhubela stated on Thursday last week before the meeting. The Herald will publish the GTM’s response and the official outcome of the meeting once received.