Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Cllr Ruan Swart.
The DA in the Maquassi Hills Local Municipality is concerned over the municipality’s incompetence to supply water to residents over the last two weeks.
The towns of Wolmaransstad and Tswelalang have been without water for more than a week, while communities in Makwassie and Lebaleng have been without water for more than two weeks.
The DA has on numerous occasions reached out to the Municipal Manager, Nokuthula Mbonani, and the Directors, to find a permanent solution that would restore water supply, but our efforts have been ignored.
Eskom’s rolling blackouts, affecting Maquassi Hills for 12 hours a day, further prevents water supply because the pump stations are unable to function.
As a solution, the DA submitted a proposal through the municipality, which has since October 2022, requested that Eskom exempt Leeudoringstad from rolling blackouts because all water is pumped from Balkfontein to Leeudoringstad and then distributed to the rest of the Maquassi Hills area. The request, however, has simply been met with silence and no further steps have been taken by the municipality to resolve the water crisis.
The DA will now write to the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, requesting him to urgently intervene in the municipality’s water crisis to install a generator at the Leeudoringstad Reservoir to ensure the supply of water to households even during Eskom rolling blackouts.
The DA will also write to Municipal Manager Mbonani to bring into operation boreholes in Wolmaransstad to augment water supply to the Reservoir.
Water is not only a basic human right but a fundamental necessity. It is time that the ANC-led Maquassi Hills Municipality realise that they are not above the law and that it is their responsibility to provide essential services to residents.