Johannesburg - Primary school pupils and residents of a mine village outside Carletonville face another water shortage after the Merafong Local Municipality decided to cut supply to the mine.
The water supply was stopped in May after the owners of Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine failed to settle its R197 million municipal bill.
The Gauteng Department of Education was forced to dispatch water tanks to the three primary schools in the area.
Residents weren’t so lucky – they were forced to buy water from shops in Carletonville. People who couldn’t afford to do so had to walk long distances to fetch industrial water from a furrow.
Due to the strife, MEC for Human Settlements, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Jacob Mamabolo intervened and brokered a meeting between the municipality and the mine liquidators in June.
During the meeting, the liquidators agreed to make a preliminary payment of R600 000 towards the water bill and paid the amount on June 12.
Water was then restored to the village and the three schools.
The liquidators agreed to pay the outstanding amounts but failed to do so.
The breach of the agreement was brought to Premier David Makhura’s attention on Wednesday.
DA constituency head in Carletonville and MPL Ina Cilliers asked Makhura and Mamabolo to intervene.
She also notified them about the municipality’s intention to cut the water supply.
A Pretoria law firm, in a letter dated September 9, stated that the municipality had received no further payment from the liquidator since the initial amount of R600 000.
“Our client (Merafong City Local Municipality) is therefore contemplating the possibility to terminate the piped water supply and to once again supply free basic water to the Blyvooruitzicht mining villages and premises per water tanker and JoJo tanks at a minimum quantity of 6 kilolitres per household per month and at a minimum flow rate of not less than 10 litres per minute,” the letter stated.
The letter was also written to Lawyers for Human Rights, who had initially acted on behalf on the community during the initial water supply cut, Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Pravin Gordhan, and Mamabolo. All interested parties were given 20 days to detail reasons why water supply should not be terminated.
The lawyer’s letters and the liquidators’ decision to withdraw from the mine in November have placed the schools in a quandary.
If the liquidators and Liz Gerecke’s company, which manages the village, pull out it means payments to Eskom for electricity supply to the village would be terminated and would plunge the entire area into darkness.
The situation prompted the principal of Laerskool Blyvooruitsig, Andre Booysen, to write an SOS letter to the Department of Basic Education.
In it, he states: “The consequences of this may have a devastating effect on the school and the community. If the supply of water and electricity is cut, the functionality of the school will become a very big challenge.”
He further wrote: “If Double D&G withdraw from the contract, we will be left in the dark and dry. If this happens, the security of the school will be non-functional and the buildings and infrastructure of the school won’t last long before it will be looted and destroyed because the battery back-up of the alarm system doesn’t last long for more than 10 hours at a time. We can’t afford to pay guards to secure our school.
“This situation has all the components to turn into a disaster if we don’t have any contingency plans or alternatives to services supplied to the school in advance before the problem realises. This is the problem that will affect Laerskool Blyvooruitsig, Rockland Primary and Ekuphakameni Primary,” Booysen wrote.