Eendracht residents order materials as municipality fails to fix pipe
Municipal employees leave big holes as they wait for materials.
Eendracht residents are concerned about the leaking water pipe they believe the Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) has neglected.
According to their councillor, Portia Mpatlanyane, it has been a month since they reported the leak, but the municipal employees dug holes and left again.
Mpatlanyane said the municipality had water challenges, but they did not take issues with water leaks seriously.
“We reported this pipe leak towards the end of September. The municipal officials checked it and dug around the pipe where they saw a leaking joint,” said Mpatlanyane.
“Since they left, they failed to close a big trench, which became a danger to our children. We followed up with them last month and they told us they were still waiting for the required material to be delivered.
“Our question is, what kind of material takes the entire month to be delivered? To fix the water leak, it needs a joint to replace the damaged one.
“One resident, Bennie Engelbrecht, volunteered to buy the joint, so I went to a plumber in Secunda and explained what we wanted, and they said we could get it easily.
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“To my surprise, the joint cost less than R200, and we are waiting for it to be delivered. Then we will give it to the municipal employees to install it.”
According to Mpatlanyane, the municipal manager Elliot Maseko and his director are also aware of the leak because they also went to check it.
“The municipality is losing thousands of litres of water through this pipe leak in Eendracht.”
Donald Green, GMM spokesperson, said the procurement process is underway, and the service provider will deliver the materials for the leak repairs soon. He said officials would repair it within 24 hours after the materials arrived.
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