Three weeks without water, while the ANC bickers

It is exactly three weeks of service delivery failure in two district municipalities as Limpopo ANC top brass bickers over plum jobs such as who will become speakers, chief whips or mayors.

This after the halting last week of special council sittings in the Vhembe and Sekhukhune district municipalities.

The councils were due to elect and inaugurate new councillors, including mayors, to run the councils for the next five years.

But the process in the two councils could not proceed after lawyers representing a series of disgruntled councillors with interests in deployment made an urgent application at the Limpopo High Court to interdict the inaugural meetings.

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In light of this, no mayor, speaker or chief whip was elected last Thursday, leaving the two municipalities without any council in place.

The move, has, however, left communities in Venda and Sekhukhune without basic services such as water, litter collection and other services.

“Since the local government elections on 1 November, we have not had any drop of water,” said a concerned villager, Joyce Phaahla, at Matlerekeng village in Moutse near Groblersdal.

“Money is there but there are no trucks or drivers to tanker water to us.

“We have JoJo tanks in our yards but they are empty.

“All we are asking is why should we suffer because politicians are fighting for ANC jobs.”

According to the community, municipal trucks stopped tankering water to the area on the day of the elections.

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“When we go to the municipality to ask why they stopped tankering water, they tell us there is no chief whip, speaker or a mayor in place to sanction such services.

“They say until such time a new council is inaugurated, the situation will remain the same,” ward 7 committee member in Moutse under the Elias Motsoaledi local municipality, Busi Magolego, told The Citizen.

In Mphambo village, resident Glenda Masia said fetching water in rivers and fountains had become a habit for locals.

– news@citizen.co.za.