EMALAHLENI – The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has threatened to approach the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to complain about the municipality’s failure to provide adequate water supply to residents of eMalahleni municipality.
Residents, in some parts of the municipality, have allegedly spent close to three months without a constant supply of water. “We stay for more than two months without water and when it comes, it comes back very dirty,” said a resident who chose to remain anonymous.
When addressing a march against nepotism, corruption and lack of service delivery in eMalahleni last week Friday, EFF regional leader, Mpho Morokolo, said the water problem has become a burning issue, therefore they have now decided to approach Chapter 9 institutions for intervention.
“Water is a basic human right. When you do not give people water, you are violating their human rights,” Morokolo said. “Water is a backbone for life,” he said. However, the municipality has attributed the shoddy water supply to increasing population, recent floods and load shedding. “The municipal population growth and the hot season result in high water demand in the municipality over and above the current water supply deficit,” said Lebohang Mofokeng, the Communications Manager.
“Further to this are the recent floods and load shedding which also contribute to the current spade of water supply shortages in various areas,” he said. “The infrastructure decaying state causes numerous pipe breakages and with different types and sizes cause the repair work to take time. Furthermore, the isolating valves are in a state that are not easy to operate hence prolonged time to drain the system,” he said.
Mofokeng also said that the municipality has plans ranging from short to long term afoot with the only main challenge being funding. “Water permit expansion, exploring additional water schemes and basic water saving and management practices to avoid unnecessary losses. In cases where water cannot be supplied through normal piping system, water tankers are utilized to affected areas,” he said.
Morokolo further said that they are going to write to MEC for COGTA, Mandla Msibi, asking him to investigate the recently alleged scandal on Traffic Officers training programme. “We are totally opposed to the position which the municipality has taken; to self-investigate because they are going to come out with biased outcomes from that particular investigation.
“We gonna write to the MEC for COGTA in the province to invoke Section 139, because amongst other things, if there are allegations of nepotism and corruption, Section 139 of the Constitution can be invoked so that they can probe those allegations and therefore we can be given a proper verdict,” he said.
Morokolo further stated that tenderprenuership was one factor that is contributing to the municipality’s financial difficulty. “They are outsourcing their responsibility to contractors to fix minor issues that, if the municipality was capacitated enough can run such activities on their own but outsourcing services means more charges and ultimately putting the municipality in financial distress,” he said.
