Rand Water opens taps to supply Govan Mbeki Municipality with water
Ms Fiona Pelman from Secunda Gratis & Verniet said the assistance given to residents, especially at Davies Court, was from Gert of Engen Garage Evander, Blades Hair Salon and the team of Sectri Autobody and Car Doctor. “ The members on Stratcon whatsapp group did all the organising and mobilising.”
HIGHVELD – After Govan Mbeki Municipality won a urgent court case in the High Court against Rand Water on Thursday, 21 January, residents in Bethal, eMzinoni, Secunda, Trichardt, Evander, Kinross and eMbalenhle were still left without water by Friday, 22 January.
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, said this is because the lower laying areas were using up the demand.
However, later on Friday, the executive mayor of Govan Mbeki Municipality, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, confirmed that Rand Water had not opened the valves to let water through to the Govan Mbeki municipal area.
Rand Water did not open the valves and the municipality instructed their lawyers to speak to Rand Water as they ignored a High Court order to end the water throttling.
Several organisations took hands and supplied pensioners at Davies Court and others with drinking water while they waited for Rand Water to open the valves.
Residents in Secunda and other areas had water by Saturday, however, Bethal residents were still left without water as Rand Water failed to pump water to region 1 which includes Bethal.
Another issue that affected water supply in Bethal, was the vandalism of a pump station in eMzinoni.
The water level at Bethal Rand’s reservoir was below 20 per cent on Saturday, however, by Sunday Bethal had water again.
Residents in the Highveld area were left without water for longer than a week and had to buy water to cook, bath and do laundry or they had to visit friends or family who did have water.
Mr Zuma said there is a strain between the municipality and Rand Water because Rand Water forgot about the constitution.
He said they know that they owe Rand Water R355-million, but that does not give Rand Water a right to close water for communities because of interests that are accumulating due to late payment.
“We are paying our current account,” he said.
In the mean time, the AfriForum also opened a case against Rand Water to ensure that residents will not sit without water again. They also hold the municipality accountable for the past week’s scenario and water crisis.
“If the municipality paid their account like they are supposed to, we would not have had this problem,” said Mr Jan du Plessis, chairman of AfriForum’s branch in Secunda.
He said they are helping where they can and supplied people with water during this time. He said after numerous letters written and delivered in person to Govan Mbeki Municipality, requesting the municipality to keep AfriForum updated on what is happening with Rand Water and Eskom, they have not received any response from the municipality.
To support AfriForum in this regards, send a SMS with the word ‘Water’ to 45350. A SMS costs R1.
This was not the first time that Rand Water throttled the water supply to towns within the Govan Mbeki municipal area.
The water was throttled with 20 per cent in 2017 and last year and 50 per cent this year because of Govan Mbeki Municipality’s failure to pay Rand Water.
The water issues for Govan Mbeki Municipality came because Rand Water recently insisted that the municipality begin paying off its old debt.
Govan Mbeki Municipality is paying Rand Water about R50-million every 45 days, but this is the current account and not the old debt.
