No water at Ezakheni church
Women are often seen carrying buckets full of water on their heads from a tap which is about 400 metres away
Father St John’s Church in Ezakheni E-Section has been plagued with problems regarding its water supply and also the rebuilding of the church itself.
Church leaders Mr GS Hlongwane and Mrs Mvelase are now asking when their problems will come to an end.
Women are often seen carrying buckets full of water on their heads from a tap outside the church premises, which is about 400 metres away. Men in the area are also seen pushing wheelbarrows full of water.
There is no tap on the church premises, with about 30 people living in buildings around the church. Most of them are sickly. All of these people seek healing in the church, which is evidently well-known for healing people using holy water. The sickly, of course, cannot fetch their own water and rely on others for help. This means that about five people collect water for about 30 others, placing a burden on those kind enough to help.
Another problem that faces the church is that people use the toilets, but don’t have any water to wash their hands.
A councillor from the area was contacted in November last year and asked if there was a plan to bring water to the church premises. The feedback received was that this would be done the following week, but to date the situation has remained unchanged.
Church leaders say the premises is occupied legally and that there was water before they were cut off by the municipality because they wanted to build a proper church structure. To date, a proper church has not been built.
A letter dated August 18, 2011, was received by the church from the municipality, stating that the church leaders must demolish mud structures because the municipality had obtained funding to build a proper church structure, together with 12 other houses, including a mission house. The church complied with the municipality’s letter and demolished the houses so that construction could commence. However, to date, no construction has started.
The church leaders say they have made enquiries with the municipality, but nobody can provide them with answers.
The church members are now asking a lot of questions, such as: Why did the municipality ask the church leaders to demolish the structures they were living in peacefully? Also, why has the municipality not delivered on its promise when the church has complied with their instructions?
