Community Representatives meeting with municipality

The municipality has agreed to have weekly meetings with community representatives to discuss and engage about problems in the community like the water and electricity crises we are experiencing.

These meetings have been ongoing for a while, but little to no progress has been made due to the municipalities disregard to the community. They will cancel meetings, while Save Ngwathe is sitting in the lobby waiting for the meeting to start or just not show up at the meeting.

When a meeting is held, they either make empty promises or they do not allow groups like Save Ngwathe to raise issues or they refuse to answer questions.

At yesterday’s meeting the temperature rose quickly and Mr. Malunga had to face Save Ngwathe, the legal team of Afriforum and 3 pressure groups from Tumahole all on his own, seeing that none of the other municipal representatives attended the meeting.

He could not give any answers.

Save Ngwathe is having a Teams meeting with the department of water and sanitation later today and will give feedback as soon as possible.

Yesterday’s meeting between the municipality and the represented groups was a historic event, seeing that there was a unity between all the pressure groups transcending social, economic, language, political and ideological differences.

One goal – we want water.

No more lies and empty promises will be accepted.

 

With this being said, we decided to draw up a petition that every person that is affected by the water crisis must sign.

This is a community crisis affecting every sphere of life and it impacts our basic human right to clean water.

Please read the following document and click on the link to sign the petition.

17 April 2023

The Executive Mayor Ngwathe Municipality PARYS

For Attention:  Me. Victoria de Beer

CC: The Acting Municipal Manager Mr. T.M. Ngesi

The Executive Director, Technical Services Mr. T. Malunga

SUPPLY AND  DELIVERY OF GENERATOR:  PARYS WATER  TREATMENT   WORKS

 First off, thank you for the improvement in providing more frequent updates with regards to water and power challenges to the residents of Ngwathe municipality during the month of March. We notice and appreciate the effort to keep the community  informed.

Although communication has  improved  regarding  the  challenges,  the  community is still subject to severe disregard of our basic human right to have access to clean and reliable  water  sources daily.

In January 2023 the town was subject to protests due to  the  prolonged  unavailability of water to the community, which  disrupted  the town  and  brought the economic and social development of the town to  a  standstill.  Schools  was  closed and businesses could not open. Additionally,  as per  communication from  your office, a water shedding schedule was  introduced,  which  confirmed  that  water  is not available  for the whole  community.

In every communication the challenges around load shedding are highlighted as a major contributor to the water challenges we as a community  face.  We  are  entering the winter months and if there is anything to learn from the past – load shedding  is a reality,  and the severity  thereof  increases  during  winter months.

 On the 3rd of July 2022 the impact of disrupted power supply  was  already  highlighted  by yourself  in a meeting  with  the community  in front of the Town  Hall.

In the meeting it was confirmed that the budget  for  a  generator  for  the  water plant was approved  and the budget came into effect on the 1st of    July  2022.

It is already 9 months into your financial year and the generator has not been procured yet. On the 10th of March you also confirmed that work is underway to secure an isolated line to the water plant to prevent load shedding as it is critical infrastructure.

As a community we request formal written feedback from your office by 19 May  2023  on the following  questions:

  • When will the isolated power line to the water treatment plant be operational?
  • Has the back-up generator  been procured?
  • When will the generator  be operational?
  • Are there funds available for the day-to-day expenses to operate  the generator  (i.e., diesel  costs)?
  • Has the diesel supplier  been  procured?

It is critical that the community understand, what is the status of the Refurbishment Project and other important support issues, in order to fully implement the Refurbishment Project and improve the water supply to  the  entire town. We are awaiting your urgent response by the due date indicated above.

The Directors Save Ngwathe