An ordinary day in Standerton turned maddening for some when residents were left with no power, nor water supply on Wednesday, 18 November, just before 8am.
WhatsApp-groups vibrated with enquiries about the reason for the interruptions and it soon became clear the whole town was affected.
The dominoes began falling and a quick visit to the CBD saw workers of the Lekwa Municipality at the satellite offices standing outside, and taxpayers’ patience being tested in a queue, in front of the Sars-building,
Information at 9.27am indicated that there was a fault on the Eskom-line and a team was dispatched for the necessary repairs.
The estimated time given for switching on was given as between noon and 1pm.
Lekwa was intent on cleaning two sedimentation tanks at the Standerton Water Treatment Plant the same day, planning on finishing by 11am.
Electricity supply was restored to the offices of the Standerton Advertiser at 11.36am, but the power tripped at 12.53pm.
By 3.40pm the Eskom-lines were still off, a fault was identified on the normal supply line at Grootfontein and the wires of both standby lines were broken.
The time-frame given for switching on was 8pm, followed by an urgent message to switch off all geysers and appliances to prevent damage. Water supply was the next tricky hurdle, since information suggested that water pressure was low and that the reservoirs and pipes had run dry.
The waiting game began for the reservoirs to fill up.
The newspaper spoke to the caucus leader of the DA, Mr Rosier de Ville, on Friday, 20 November for his take on the situation.
Mr De Ville estimated that he receives about five calls or complaints daily, which are reported to Lekwa.
“It is frustrating because of the level of cooperation from the municipality,” he said.
He referred to a call from a businessman, the same morning, about insufficient water pressure. “Lekwa does not give feedback and the situation is compounded when a complaint, already reported, is not attended to in four days.”
Goldi in Standerton sent a truck with 23 000 litres of clean water to their factory shop in Kosmospark on Friday and the truck moved to Ext 8 later the day.
The council meeting scheduled for 20 November was postponed to Tuesday, 24 November.
Mr Werner Weber, provincial leader of the FF Plus, issued a press release on 17 November, saying that the party has sent an official letter to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu, requesting that she must immediately intervene at the Lekwa Municipality.
Mr Weber said the municipality is in contempt of the High Court’s order that it issued in 2018, regarding the pollution of the Vaal River.
