Sasol handed over 1 000 plumbing consumables to the Lekwa Municipality on 10 April in appreciation of their workplace exposure to plumbing learners.
The programme is called ‘War on Water Leaks’ with plumbing as a key trade.
Mr Nechivave Monombe, from TVET College, indicated the programme began in 2016 in partnership with Sasol, the Govan Mbeki Municipality, Lekwa Municipality and Cobra and Rand Water Foundation.
It initially began in Govan Mbeki and was expanded to Lekwa with the main purpose of trying to reduce water leakages within the region.
Plumbing was identified as an important skill in fighting water leakages and out of 60 learners, 20 were placed in Lekwa and 40 in Govan Mbeki as part of the programme.
A total of 12 employees were placed in the municipality’s plumbing section and trained through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and now are qualified artisan plumbers.
Ms Mashudu Ndou from Sasol thanked Lekwa and indicated that 20 learners will be selected from Lekwa.
“Sasol’s support will benefit the municipality, while helping the learners and the items that have been handed over, will respond to the current water challenges,” Ms Ndou said.
Mr Linda Dhlamini, executive mayor of Lekwa, appreciated the initiative.
“We are dealing with a scarce resource and should not be punished by future generations when saying our generation allowed water to actually go to a point of forming wars,” said Mr Dhlamini.
“College is a center of knowledge and education is the only platform where we can liberate ourselves from poverty.”
He also referred to a plant that is pumping 27 megalitres daily which was extended to 37 megalitres.
“Leaks and infrastructure challenges need to be resolved as a collective.”
Ms Portia Mange, CEO of Gert Sibande TVET College, supported his proposal on fixing water leaks in a certain ward as leaks are related to potholes.
“The college has been selected as one of the 13 specialisation colleges within the country for the millwright trade,” Ms Mange said.
She also thanked the municipality for hosting students in the workplace.
“It takes an entire community to build the town,” she concluded.
