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