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Water: Polokwane Mayor engages (but not with residents)

As part of stakeholder engagement on the current water shortages in parts of the municipality, Polokwane Mayor Thembi Nkadimeng sat with various stakeholders, community leaders and ward councillors from communities affected by the challenges.

March 4, 2021
Umpha Manenzhe Less than a minute
Photo: Archive

The purpose of the engagement session was to present the current interventions, including short and long term projects that are being implemented to alleviate water challenges.

Previously, residents from around the city including Seshego, Nirvana and Flora Park insisted that they wanted to meet with the mayor personally to convey their struggles to her.

The Municipal Communications Manager, Matshidisho Mothapo, on a previous occasion confirmed to Review that the municipality would make time to engage with residents, but only community leaders were invited to the engagement sessions.

Observer asked residents if they felt that there was a need to directly engage with city management.

Makhanani Chabalala: The municipality left out the most important stakeholder which is the residents themselves. I stay in an area that struggles with water and we have gone about two weeks with no water earlier this year and at no point were we engaged about the reasons for the water shortage. It was only when I tweeted about the issue that did someone try and engage us. As the community we pay the rates and taxes so it is not a wise decision to leave the residents out.
Andries de Beer: If not to the public, then who are the real stakeholders?
Ray Goulkan: In my view, the mayoral office of Polokwane called this meeting just to calm people down. This water crises was supposed to be solved long ago. We submitted proposals to permanently solve the water crisis but we were ignored as usual. Like I said, the mayor is trying to soften the issue and buy time by not engaging the affected directly, there is really no permanent solution on the table rather that deploying water tankers owned by councilors and big shots in the municipality and poitically connected people.
Ruben Lapane: No, the mayor must speak to her people; we are the ones who voted her in. It will not solve the problem if the people who are directly affected are not represented in the engagements.

At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
March 4, 2021
Umpha Manenzhe Less than a minute

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