Ladysmith Secondary School (Lasec) has reportedly been forced to close amid an ongoing water shortage that has now entered its third week.

The water crisis began on August 7, with residents in parts of Ladysmith experiencing an unreliable water supply. The prolonged outage is now affecting schools, with concerns mounting over the impact on teaching and learning.

Lasec becomes non-operational

Lasec confirmed in a letter to parents, dated August 20, that the school had become non-operational due to the water shortage.

According to the school, the Department of Labour closed the school because of unhygienic conditions resulting from lack of water.

Grade 12 learners have, however, been asked to attend limited classes, while the remainder of the school stays closed.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has expressed concern over the ongoing water crisis, accusing uThukela District Municipality of failing to address the situation.

“The crisis began on August 7, 2026. Two weeks later, residents are still without reliable water. Schools have now been forced to close,” the DA said.

The party further blamed the situation on what it described as years of failure by the IFP-led administration.

“While communities suffer and children’s education is disrupted, the municipality continues to lose 65% of its water and sits with over R1.3 billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” the DA added.

Municipality blames silt at Ezakheni Water Treatment Works

uThukela District Municipality previously attributed the water shortages to silt at the Ezakheni Water Treatment Works.

The municipality said uMngeni-uThukela Water was working to remove the silt to restore the treatment works to full operation.

Four pumps running as municipality works to restore supply

In an update issued yesterday evening (August 21), the municipality said progress had been made at the Ezakheni Water Treatment Works.

According to the municipality, four pumps are now operational, while the Variable Speed Drives (VSDs) have also been sorted out.

According to last night’s update, the municipality said ‘pump number five could be started within the next three hours, but a non-return valve still needs to be installed’.

Valve ordered from Pietermaritzburg

“Once that valve is installed, then we will be running at full capacity,” the municipality said.

uThukela said that further updates would be provided as work continues to resolve the water crisis, and apologised to residents for the inconvenience caused by the ongoing disruption.

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