Secunda community leader interrupts council meeting, demands mayor’s attention
“The reason we came to the council meeting is that we sent emails and made calls trying to get hold of them about the water crisis. We have a solution for the crisis. Companies want to assist the municipality using their own money to fix our water reservoirs.”
The Secunda community leader, Lincoln Niekerk interrupted the Govan Mbeki municipality council meeting on October 31 at the council chamber.
Niekerk and other community leaders came to the meeting to get the attention of the municipality mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma and the municipal manager, Elliot Maseko after their failed attempts to get hold of them.
These residents said they are tired of the water crisis in their area and want to assist the municipality in resolving the crisis but the municipality doesn’t want to come on board.
Niekerk said it’s been three months since they tried to meet the municipality mayor and the manager with no luck.
“The reason we came to the council meeting is that we sent emails and made calls trying to get hold of them about the water crisis.
“We have a solution for the crisis. Companies want to assist the municipality using their own money to fix our water reservoirs.
“These companies have already done work scoping and know how much the work will cost. All they need is approval from the municipality to continue,” said Niekerk.
Niekerk said they felt relieved because after they interrupted the council, they got the attention of the director of the cooperate service department, Bheki Khubheka. He provided them with his email address and requested they email him.
“We will send those emails again and if they don’t respond then we will be left with no choice but to apply for a march. We want to be involved in fixing the problem,” said Niekerk.
After the Secunda community leaders left, the council meeting continued and Zuma told the council that the municipality has taken an initiative to allocate R30m to intervene in the water crisis.
Zuma said their first area of focus is to attend to the asbestos water pipes that continue to rupture in Evander which contribute to breakdowns and water losses. They will allocate R9m to replace those pipes with sustainable ones.
“We are also allocating R7m for the refurbishment of the Secunda booster pump and water reservoir.
“When Rand Water gets a breakdown or isn’t pumping water to our municipality, Secunda is immediately affected but other areas survive for a day or two because water will be still available in their reservoirs,” said Zuma.
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Zuma also said they will allocate R1m for cleaning water reservoirs across the municipality.
“We will also refurbish the eMbalenhle Ext 16 water reservoir in dealing with the water availability issue to the community that receives water from that reservoir because it doesn’t fill up.
“The refurbishment will deal with pressure management and also ensure that the reservoir is protected from vandals.
“We will also allocate R6m for the lifting up water metres that were installed on the ground and the replacement of malfunctioning ones for accurate billing and also deal with water losses,” said Zuma.
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