Residents have been left without water for six days and at the time of going to print, parts of Kinross and Thistle Grove began receiving water again.
Messages had still been doing rounds on Friday, May 6, of areas such as the Medical Center, Joël Spitz and Ella Street that were still dry.
Most residents said they can understand load-shedding and work around not having electricity, but water is a necessity and they are being deprived of a basic human right.
Muslims recently celebrated Eid and the water shortage severely impacted on this community in Kinross.
Muslims pray five times a day. Before prayers, it is expected to perform a purification ritual, where it is required to wash their faces, hands, arms, and feet.
However, these rituals can not be performed due to no running water.
Besides the Muslim community, the average man was also affected, especially when involving the elderly and children.
One such person is a mother of three, Natasja Jooste, who said they get up at 3am so that they can boil water and get everyone bathed.
“This is the second time in a month I have experienced water shortages. This would be the longest I have been without water.
“I have to do my washing at someone else’s house. There is just no water in town,” said Jooste.
She said with three small children it is terrible not to have water.
“The toilets need to be flushed, the children need to bath. It takes time to boil water. We have to buy water to bathe in,” said Jooste.
She said at the moment her family uses one bath in order to save bottled water and to keep from continuously boil water.
The executive mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma, addressed residents on Tuesday, May 3, about the water shortage.
He said a team was deployed because they were not aware of any “switching off” of water and they were “surprise” to hear there was no water.
“The team reported that already there is water flowing to the reservoir in Thistle Grove,” said Zuma.
“I alerted the team and they assured me they were working on site.
“When I came out to check what exactly is the problem, I found out that the team had left the site. They alleged to have seen a massive number of community members, and they felt threatened and left.
“The team has now commenced with their work. I am not going to leave here until there are signs of progress here,” said Zuma on that day.
Residents responded that he would be there for a long time.
Residents are adamant that the technical department is lying. A resident remarked that the mayor works for “us” and not for
GMM’s technical department and that an enquiry needs to be made into their technical team.
“Please institute an inquiry as to why we are continuously being lied to by your technical department. It is your duty to oversee for us, you work for us, not for them, you are for the community,” said the resident when addressing the mayor.
The resident said they were told that three water trucks were made available but there was no sight of the water trucks.
“We are continuously being lied to. Either it is incompetence or they don’t care.
“If we are wrong as a community we will accept it, but still, there is no water! We go from meeting to meeting and still we get nowhere,” said the resident.
Another resident commented to Zuma that an urgent meeting needs to be set up with GMM as water shortages are becoming a weekly problem.
GMM’s acting head of communications, Lucky Mhlongo said: “Parts of Kinross community were not receiving water for days owing to a pipe burst at the Kinross main supply.
“The pipe was fixed and community members are now receiving water. Water trucks were dispatched to the affected areas.
“The municipality apologises profusely for the delay in fixing the pipe burst and is currently hard at work ensuring the community of Kinross is receiving water consistently,” said Mhlongo.
FF Plus councillor Aranda Nel-Buitendag said it was great to see community members helping each other out when having to cart buckets of water from water tanks to their homes.
“Men were helping women load water cans onto their own bakkies and drove the cans and the women back to their homes,” said Nel-Buitendag.
In a media statement Nel-Buitendag said officials of GMM were dragging their feet to find a solution to Kinross’ water crisis and that the FF Plus finds it unacceptable that management of GMM’s department of water and sanitation are too slow to find a permanent solution.
She said the current water crisis did not happen overnight and poor planning on the municipality’s side plays a big role.
“Reservoirs do not get cleaned regularly and there is a possibility that blockages can influence the water pressure.
“Infrastructure such as pipelines, dams, water purification plants and water pumps are not being maintained, this adds to the problem,” said Nel-Buitendag.
“The FF Plus will continue to put pressure on the municipality to resolve the water crisis
“Access to clean and sufficient water is a constitutional right and the FF Plus will ensure that the GMM respects it,” concluded Nel-Buitendag.
