By Sisanda Mgojo
Many parts of South Africa have been facing various water challenges that have led to cholera in Pretoria townships; water cuts in Johannesburg & Pietermaritzburg and high E.coli levels in the ocean in Durban.
This happens as South Africans prepare to vote in provincial and national elections.
Residents of Mthatha in the OR Tambo District Municipality in the Eastern Cape find themselves battling what the municipality is calling water shedding which has led to some community members saying they don’t want to vote this year.
“We want the government to assist us because water is essential in one’s life. Even today, we are celebrating 30 years of democracy but we still don’t have water and service delivery is lacking within our municipality,” said community member, Phumzile Nkewana.
Some in the community say they’ve had to resort to private water trucks which costs them more money.
“We can’t continue hiring water trucks to supply us with water because they are expensive. Water is a basic need so without water, we can’t do anything at all and if this matter has not been resolved until we reach the day for voting we will not vote,” says residentAkhona Lungwengwe.
The municipality says it has reached the water shedding decision because it loses a lot of water to non-paying residents who mostly connect to the water supply without alerting the municipality.
“We are experiencing a setback in many rural areas, and semi-urban areas because members of the community continue to connect illegally to our pipeline, and this is causing water outages in many areas in respect of Chris Hani area,” explains OR Tambo Municipality spokesperson, Bulelwa Ganyaza.
Some say they don’t even have water to begin. The municipality says they’re trying to extend their pipelines to them.
“In this area there is work that is currently underway to ensure that we extend the pipelines from Signal Hill and right through Hani A and B so that eventually the people of Chris Hani C can receive water once again,” said Ganyaza.
