Ncandu Park residents storm meeting over 10-day water crisis
Residents are demanding answers after being left without water for 10 days.
Residents of Ncandu Park stormed into a municipal meeting earlier this morning, demanding answers as to why they still do not have water after 10 days.
Watch as residents storm municipal building demanding to be addressed by management themselves
Residents demand answers over prolonged water outage
A long-standing water supply interruption has affected several areas over the past 10 days, including Ncandu Park, Amajuba Park, Barryhertzog Park, lower Hutten Heights, Sunny Ridge and Pioneer Park.
However, while parts of Hutten Heights, Pioneer Park and Sunny Ridge eventually saw a return of water over the weekend, Ncandu Park residents say they are still without a drop of water and are now demanding answers from the Newcastle Municipality.
They also claimed that many parts of Ncandu Park had not seen a single water tanker over the past week, despite tankers being in the area and several requests for trucks to be sent to their streets.
“It has been absolutely heart-breaking to witness this crisis. We have had to sit and watch old people and young children struggle to carry buckets of water up and down to their homes. I had to watch people literally run after water tankers, begging them to stop so they could get water before the tankers took off,” said one resident, who wished to remain anonymous.
She continued: “This is just not acceptable anymore! We have a right to water and this right has been violated for far too long now!”
Residents said they are tired of the excuses and the different versions of what the problem is, was or could be, and want the truth.
The group of residents met in front of the municipality this morning before entering the building, hoping to find answers.
They were informed that a meeting was currently taking place and that, once the meeting had concluded, the municipality would update residents.
However, this was not an acceptable answer and prompted the residents to take further action.
Residents confront officials over water crisis
While municipal officials met in the Executive Committee chambers this morning to address the current water situation, the group of angry residents stormed into the municipal building, demanding to speak with the mayor, speaker and municipal manager themselves.
The Newcastle Advertiser has reached out to the Newcastle Municipality for official comment. This will be published as soon as it is received.
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