In the early hours of Wednesday morning (22 February), a group consisting of approximately 500 community members embarked on a strike and used taxis and trucks to block the N12, forcing motorists to make use of alternative routes.
The protest stemmed from community members being disgruntled because of service delivery issues and lack of water throughout Ikageng. The following day on Thursday (23 February), residents held a second protest outside court. Following the violent protests held over the two days, police apprehended seven suspects and impounded a taxi in order to maintain public order.
According to Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone, police spokesperson, “The suspects were nabbed after a group of community members allegedly barricaded the N12 road in Ikageng and Potchefstroom with stones, burning tyres and other objects, then later marched to the Central Business District (CBD) in a bid to voice their service delivery related dissatisfaction,” Mokgwabone said.
Following their arrests, all accused persons appeared before the Potchefstroom Magistrates’ Court for public violence. It is expected that they will reappear in court on Thursday, 9 March 2023, after being released with a warning.
In a statement released by the municipality, it said the cause of the water shortage was due to a combination of factors that include continuous high levels of load shedding implemented and mechanical failure of backup generators.
They, however further assured residents that generators at the water plants have been refilled on Thursday (23 February) with diesel meaning pumping will continue to take place even during the load shedding.
A resident who asked to remain anonymous said the problem is not a lack of diesel. “The problem is that the municipality thought that they were doing a good thing by hiring those generators and have now realized that it’s costing them too much,” the source explained.
Residents are not satisfied with the municipality’s quick fix and fear that the solution will be short lived. The Department Technical Services submitted an application to Eskom for water treatment plants and critical pump stations to be exempted from the current rolling black outs. According to the municipality, due to the high demand, Eskom can only offer exemptions to urgent applications for a limited number of hours.
“As the J.B. Marks Local Municipality we were approved for 72 hours and the exemption was only granted on Friday, 24 February 2023 at 22H00 in the evening. That would definitely help improve the water levels. The Municipality is at an advanced stage of procuring additional generators,” the municipality’s statement read.
The statement further confirmed that the Department had site meetings on Thursday 23 February 2023 with Eskom and the SANDF. “The idea is to utilize an overhead line supplying power from the SANDF Base to the water treatment plants and pump stations along the Ventersdorp Road,” the statement read.
Eskom had concurred to the application for a connection point that would be permanently exempted from load shedding and work as a dedicated line to supply the critical water services infrastructure. The construction to connect a permanent line on the SANDF one would resume as soon as possible.
Regarding the safety of water from the tankers, the municipality had assured residents that samples had been taken to the laboratories to test if the water is suitable for the public. By the time of publication, the Herald had not received any follow-up information from the municipality regarding the tested water samples.
