A group of elderly women from Rethabiseng township have been sleeping outside a municipal building in Region 7 since Monday night, demanding the City of Tshwane provide them with running water in their households.
Their protest was captured in a video by a local councillor, Patrick Mabona, who posted it on a social media platform and appealed for Mayor Cilliers Brink and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to intervene in resolving the water crisis in the area.
Last month, the City said the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Plant was operating at half of its capacity due to the electrical components being damaged by a lightning strike.
At the time, the City said there was only one high-lift pump, instead of two, used to pump water to both the Zithobeni and Ekandustria reservoirs.
But, Mabona said residents, mostly from Rethabiseng, have constantly been without water for six weeks.
“It is very painful to see elderly women who are prepared to sleep over for a second outside the Muniforum building in Region 7,” he said.
In the social media video, the women could be seen calling for the municipality to supply them with water, while chanting songs, with blankets spread out in the background.
Police kept an eye on the situation as women continued to demonstrate outside the municipal building.
“They have been struggling with water for a very long time, and they have been subjected to water tankers, and now they want water from taps,” Mabona said.
Brink assured the residents of Bronkhorstspruit, Ekangala, Rethabiseng and Zithobeni that the City was working tirelessly to restore water to their areas.
“The number one priority is to get the pumps fixed at the purification plant. We know there is a longer-term issue, but at present we need to get those pumps fixed,” he said.
There have been claims that ward councillors were profiting from the water tankers and that there was a scheme to replace piped water with tanked water.
Brink said: “I can tell you that I put that to councillors and they gave me their personal assurance in the presence of officials that they have no business interests in water tankers, and we will check that up. But, in the meantime, we cannot have water tankers being blocked.”
He pleaded with communities not to vandalise public infrastructure or prevent children from going to schools.
MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations and Co-ordination Themba Fosi said: “The current water outage, affecting areas such as Rethabiseng township, Ekandustria, Ekangala main township and Ekangala Dark City, has been caused by a series of breakdowns at our water treatment plant.”
He said critical repairs were imminent, with a realistic deadline set for Friday.
“Our primary focus is on repairing the essential pumps necessary for water distribution. However, we must address critical dependencies, including the availability of these pumps, which might affect our restoration timeline.”
He said the City has implemented measures to restrict water flow from reservoirs with adequate water supply to ensure the proper refilling of reservoirs with restricted water supply.
“Additional security measures have been deployed to safeguard against any potential sabotage at the City’s water facilities,” Fosi said.
Another local councillor, Kgaugelo Phiri, claimed the water crisis in Bronkhorstspruit was as a result of the maintenance budget being cut by the DA administration.
“Ask anyone that works around the water treatment plant, they will tell you. From around R8 million in 2016 to R2m in 2023/24,” he said.
He slammed the multiparty coalition administration for failing people, saying it should hand over the water plant to the national government.
Pretoria News