Burning tyres testimony to water service issues
The community of Makoxa village in Giyani staged an illegal strike last Tuesday, burning tyres and blocking university students from writing end-of-year exams, all in search of water supply to be restored after it had been cut off for weeks prior.
LIMPOPO – Despite the fact that the strike was illegal, the police looked on helplessly as the youth trashed the streets and hurled stoned at motorists who attempted to pass through to town.
Asked about the police’s inaction during the protest, Provincial Police Spokesperson, Lt Col Moatshe Ngoepe, said the police did not want to pre-empt a crisis.
“You see sometimes when you are quick to act in a situation like that, innocent people end up hurt, hence the police did not act immediately, but we were monitoring the situation and we will be arresting people soon.
“There was a number of cases that have been opened with regard to that strike, which the police will be following up,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Mopani District Municipality has responded to the grievances raised by the community of Makoxa with regard to water services problems.
The municipality said the problem was receiving attention, but cited budgetary constraints as a current limitation.
“The biggest challenge that we face in Giyani is that there are lot of things that need to be changed which we had hoped that the contractor would have addressed by now,” explained Neil Shikwambana, the Spokesperson of Mopani District Municipality.
“The contractor’s project ended abruptly before it could resolve some of these problems related to water, and this means we have to step in and try to address the issue with the budget which we currently do not have,” he said.
In reference to the grievances raised by the community of Makoxa in particular, Shikwambana said the district was currently looking for a budget needed to address their problem.
“The budget that we had for Makoxa village was for 2018/19,” Shikwambana continued.
According to him, their main task is to fix the pipeline that takes water from the reservoir to the villagers.
“We will also fix problems that exist with the reservoir, and install water pipelines in the new settlement such as Risinga and B9 settlement,” the spokesperson said.
