De Hoop dam opening resceduled because President Zuma had to attend a funeral

STEELPOORT – The official opening of the De Hoop Dam scheduled for November 2 has been postponed because the president, Mr Jacob Zuma had to attend a funeral and couldn’t commit to the event.

According to Ms Linda Page, director of media liaison for the Department of Water Affairs, “the new opening has been postponed to November28.”

“The elite ranging from the state president, premier of the province and local MECs, to the mayor of the Greater Tubatse Municipality and his entourage will all be attending this big event. Some local chiefs and members of the local community have also been invited,” said Page.

Despite objections, relocation issues of the 38 Buffelskloof families and strikes the project remained on track and the dam is ready for impounding (collecting water in the dam).

Page said the dam would start providing water to consumers “by the end of the year”.

The dam, measuring 347-million cubic metres, is to serve the growing mining sector in the area, and two- to three million people in the domestic sector in the district.

This project is aimed at developing the Olifants River that flows through Limpopo and Mpumalanga and was estimated to cost R3,4 billion on completion according to Business Day Live.

“The De Hoop Dam will be one of the largest concrete dams in South Africa. Several firsts were recorded during its construction. One of these was the first use of “high paste, high workability” roller-compacted concrete (rollcrete), with 129 000m³ of rollcrete poured over 30 days in a single operation. This set a South African record.”