‘Quench our thirst’

LIMPOPO – THE Sekhukhune District Municipality recently put water reticulation projects worth over R250 million on hold amid allegations of the manipulation of the supply chain management policy, leaving residents in the area to continue their precarious existence without clean water.

Fifteen companies were appointed by tender, advertised in February, to start with the projects, but when the municipal manager, Mapula Makoko, recently returned to the office after being on leave, she stopped the implementation of the projects, claiming the process was flawed.

To date, none of the companies have started their projects, leaving millions of residents exposed to another cholera epidemic and a continued water shortage.

Sekhukhune was identified as one of the poorest regions in South Africa by the then president, Thabo Mbeki in 2002.

The area was hard hit by a cholera outbreak in 2008 and 2009, killing dozens of people.

The tender advertised in February was an endeavour to stop the problem from escalating.

Residents claimed their pleas to the municipality for an end to the continuing water crisis fell on deaf ears.

One resident, Maeko Sekhula of Ga-Moloi, said contact crime had increased in the area, with women and children topping the list of victims.

“Women are raped and robbed while on their way to fetch water.

“As a result, women are now paying money they can’t spare to buy water at exorbitant prices from those who have boreholes,” Sekhula said.

Another resident, Gladys Masemola of Tafelkop, said the poorest of the poor were hard hit by the problem.

She said those without boreholes bought 25 litres of water for R2 from those with boreholes.

“This is the money they were saving for their children’s schooling. We are living in abject thirst while we have huge dams overflowing with water. We need water today and not tomorrow.

“If the municipality fails to provide water to us, then we will meet at the next local government elections,” Masemola said.

Pressed for comment, Makoko declined to comment on the matter and referred all enquiries to the municipal spokesperson, Willy Mosoma.

“We acknowledge that the implementation process of the projects was put on hold. The reason we stopped the process was because we are busy with investigations on allegations that there was serious manipulation of the supply chain management policy during the evaluation and adjudication processes. The matter is still internal pending the outcome of the investigations,” Mosoma said.

Read more stories about the lack of clean water on p3 and p5.