ANC members march to LNW for water supply
ANC members from multiple branches in and around Polokwane rose up against the water crisis in the province, prompting immediate change from LNW and the municipality.
POLOKWANE – Today many members of multiple ANC branches in and around Polokwane led a peaceful march in an outcry of dissatisfaction in the lack of water in the province.
First the group marched to Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), and proceeded to the Polokwane Municipality offices.
Many Seshego and Polokwane residents who joined the previous protest on October 26 lambasted the municipality for using the community to fix its own mistakes.
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They questioned how successful ANC’s march to its own party’s led municipality would be.
Even so, leaders of the branches insisted that the goal of the march was beyond political affiliations and was meant to empower the people of Polokwane and surrounds.
A memorandum with requests as basic as clean running water was handed over with a seven-day deadline.
Among those requests the marchers asked Polokwane Mayor John Mpe to hold community engagement meetings at a more suitable time.
They say they cannot always attend the meetings that are held in the afternoons during a weekday, which is when they are usually held, because they have to work.
The ANC branch secretary of Ward 39 in Polokwane, Meisie Thulare, explained to the Polokwane Observer they marched to LNW as the ANC recently held a meeting with them wherein they promised to repair and uphold their infrastructure to help ensure water provision for all residents in and around Polokwane, which according to them is not being done.
The ANC Branch Secretary of Ward 39 in Polokwane, Meisie Thulare speaks to the Polokwane Observer outside Lepelle Northern Water where marchers have gathered over the ongoing water crisis. pic.twitter.com/bKpspSrson
— Polokwane Observer (@PolokwaneObserv) November 4, 2022
Member of parliament and resident of Seshego Zone 1 Boy Mamabolo also attended the march and called for the resignation of the LNW board, stating that the board members reside in Gauteng and are not affected by the ongoing water crisis in Polokwane and Seshego and therefore does not grasp how serious the water crisis is.
ANC Ward 23 branch secretary Mabotse Mothiba read part of their memorandum of demands to LNW officials, after which Water and Sanitation mayoral committee member Alfred Moakamedi received the memorandum on behalf of Mpe.
Moakamedi assured that the memorandum will be made a priority and that they will ‘try their best’ to meet the seven-day deadline.
