The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Sello Seitlholo has accused the Vryburg-based Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality in North West of failure as a water service authority to provide water to the communities within its local municipalities.
This after he conducted an urgent oversight visit at Pudimoe Water Treatment Works in the north of Taung, where he found among others that the municipality relies on one water tanker to provide over 100 villages within the district with water.
Seitlholo’s visit to the area was sparked by sporadic water supply in Dryharts and the surrounding villages in Greater Taung Local Municipality, resulting in a recent community unrest in the affected area.
Speaking on YOU FM Newshour, Seitlholo said that the challenge of water provision is historical and needs political will to resolve.
“That for me really is indicative of the historical challenges where municipalities do not reinvest in water and sanitation infrastructure.
They do not appoint qualified people to be able to undertake operation and maintenance of water and sanitation related infrastructure and generally lack of political will and foresight to be able to make decisive decisions as it relates to the completion of projects in as far as the state of Taung Naledi Bulk Water Supply Scheme, that has been ongoing since 2012,” said Seitlholo.
According to the department, a stalled bulk water supply meant to provide water to the communities in Greater Taung and Naledi Local Municipalities will only be completed in May 2026 after 14 years under construction.
The Deputy Minister said that the Department will have to strengthen its oversight over the provision of water in the affected municipality to ensure that water services are restored to the communities.
“We have to now undertake extensive oversight, we now have to undertake decisive action in as far as being able to take away grant.
You will recall that there are two forms of grants that we give to water services authorities and that is the 5B allocation which is direct grant to the Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality in this instance where we will give them allocation of over R300m to be able to proceed with the completion of this project.
There’s a 6B which is an indirect grant where we will as the national government be administering the grant to ensure that the projects are completed timeously,” explained the Deputy Minister.
Seitlholo has promised to return to the area soon to check on the progress made on the refurbishment of the project.
Meanwhile, the Dryharts community leader Oarabile Keoagilwenyane has accused the municipality and Magalies Water of failing to communicate sufficiently with the affected communities.
“We have been experiencing this challenge of lack of water in our communities for 12 months, and when we ask, the municipalities told us that they are still awaiting some valves that will be installed at the local wastewater treatment plant but there’s no clarity when that will be.
We have been complaining about this problem but clearly, we are not taken seriously.
We ended up clashing with the police during our latest protest over this matter,” said Keoagilwenyane.
According to Keoagilwenyane, several community members sustained injuries due to what he described as police heavy-handedness during their peaceful protest, while others were provisionally arrested.
“We have also opened cases against the police at the Pudimoe police station, we are waiting for developments in the matter,” remarked the community leader.
