Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbite in English and Setswana by Merriam Banda, DA Councillor in Madibeng Local Municipality.
Residents of Madibeng Local Municipality have for years been plagued by severe and regular water cuts, sometimes taps are dry for three months at a time.
In Letlhabile there is never a constant supply of water. Opening a tap to pour a glass of water is like winning the jackpot. When the water supply is available, it is dirty, has a strong odour and is considered undrinkable.
Residents are forced to buy water from churches, petrol stations and private individuals with access to boreholes at R2 a bucket. Unfortunately, those who cannot afford to buy have to fetch water from the same river streams that cattle drink from. Please see photos here and here, here and here.
Even though residents are constantly without water, Madibeng sends them water bills of extremely inflated amounts. Some residents have bills exceeding R50 000 for water they’ve hardly received for years now.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has repeatedly raised this issue with the municipality and the provincial government, but no solutions have been forthcoming.
DA Shadow Minister for Water and Sanitation, Leon Basson, previously conducted an oversight inspection to Wards severely affected and tabled the matter in parliament.
Madibeng is currently under Section 139(1)(b) intervention and even under the watchful eye of the provincial government, the water crisis persists.
The people of Madibeng have suffered long enough without a solution, it is time for the government to be accountable and swiftly address this problem.
The DA will launch a petition in the area, we will then hand it to the Speaker of Parliament, Thandi Modise, requesting her to summon Madibeng Local Municipality to appear before Parliament to explain why people must suffer without water.