Latest news with #DistrictMunicipality
Eyewitness News
7 days ago
- General
- Eyewitness News
Tired of waiting, Limpopo villagers lay their own water pipes
In the villages of Ha-Matsa near Louis Trichardt, residents have never had access to treated drinking water. Instead, they rely on untreated fountain water and boreholes. While they wait for the government to finish long-awaited water projects, residents are making their own plans to get water. Accessing clean water is a daily struggle in Ha-Matsa's villages, which are home to nearly 5,000 people. Ha-Matsa has one municipal borehole and two reservoirs, but it is not pumping enough water and it takes almost five days to fill the reservoir. Some households have drilled private boreholes, but most of them have dried up. 'Even though we can get sick from sharing water with animals, we don't have a choice,' said resident Constance Khakhu, who lives with a leg disability. She drilled a 60-metre borehole in 2010, but it dried up after four years. She extended it by 30 metres but 'only found mud'. Another resident, Elina Davhana, said her family's borehole also dried up within five years. Some residents walk more than two kilometres to buy water from residents with functioning boreholes, where a 20-litre container costs between R3 and R5, and a drum costs R90. Others hire donkey carts to transport water. There are also residents who own trucks and deliver water to others, charging about R1,200 to fill a 2,400-litre tank. MAKING A PLAN There is a nearby mountain spring, with untreated water, where residents use a community-managed rotational system to share the limited supply. In response to the ongoing shortages, residents raised R12,000 — about R50 per household — to buy pipes and connect directly to the spring. With help from unemployed local young people, they laid a basic piping system linking the spring to old communal taps installed during apartheid. The system has been running for three years and was recently upgraded with larger-diameter pipes to improve water pressure. But maintenance is a challenge. Frequent pipe bursts require constant repairs. When we recently visited the village, some residents were seen walking more than 3.5km to fix damaged pipes, while others pushed wheelbarrows to collect water from homes with functioning boreholes. 'It's not easy to maintain because the pipes are low quality,' said community coordinator Khathutshelo Matsa. 'We're asking for donations so we can buy stronger pipes and extend the system.' Residents have also built a small stone-and-cement wall at the spring to collect and filter out leaves and unwanted materials debris before the water flows downhill. They want to fence off the area to prevent animals from contaminating the water, but say several requests for municipal assistance have gone unanswered. UNFINISHED GOVERNMENT PROJECTS Ha-Matsa traditional authority leader Khosi Vho Philemon Matsa said the community feels abandoned. 'Our people are risking their health using water shared with animals because their pleas for help have been ignored.' Vhembe District Municipality spokesperson Matodzi Ralushai said the villages are included in the municipality's medium-term plan to drill new boreholes this financial year. Ralushai said the villages will also benefit from Phase 4 of the Mutshedzi Water Treatment Plant project, which started in 2021 and was supposed to be completed by June 2025 at a cost of R664-million for the entire project. He said that the project is progressing well and the revised completion date is 30 August 2024. The project has faced several challenges, including 'a four-month delay in budget maintenance approval, late delivery of construction materials by foreign suppliers, and heavy rainfall during February, March and April 2025. There was also community unrest in Dzanani, which was not related to the project but still disrupted progress,' Ralushai said. He said that as a temporary measure, water is being supplied through water tankers. An additional borehole in the nearby village of Manyii was meant to supplement Ha-Matsa's supply, but cable theft and vandalism have delayed the plan. This article was published with the Limpopo Mirror.
The Citizen
23-05-2025
- The Citizen
Two years later: Sedibeng's missing mayoral chain still a mystery
Nearly two years after the disappearance of a lavish R465,000 mayoral chain from the Sedibeng District Municipality, key questions about its ownership, loss, and recovery remain unanswered. Despite formal inquiries and political pressure, neither Sedibeng District Municipality, nor the Emfuleni Local Municipality has provided clarity — and the chain itself is still missing. What first appeared to be a simple case of theft has since become a bizarre story of what appears to be municipal mismanagement, blurred lines of responsibility, and official silence. A golden symbol vanishes The gold mayoral chain — a ceremonial symbol of office — was last seen on June 23, 2023, following Sedibeng's State of the District Address (SODA). According to a February 2024 press statement by DA Emfuleni North Constituency Head, Kingsol Chabalala MPL, a criminal case of theft was only opened on November 12, 2023, prompting concerns about the delayed response. The Democratic Alliance questioned why the chain's disappearance was not immediately reported to police, raising suspicions of negligence or possible cover-up. They also noted that Mayor Lerato Maloka had previously been linked to another incident involving sabotage of her municipal vehicle. The twist: The chain belongs to Emfuleni In March 2025, Sedibeng councillor Lynda Parsonson revealed a startling twist: the missing chain may never have belonged to Sedibeng at all. According to her, a former Sedibeng mayor — Simon Mofokeng — allegedly swapped Sedibeng's original chain for Emfuleni's during his time in office. 'After official engagements, it was generally handed over to security officials to be secured in the municipal safe,' Parsonson wrote. 'However, after one event, the mayor decided to retain the chain and instead lock it in a cupboard in her office. The chain has not been seen since.' Even more striking, Parsonson stated that councillors were not informed of the disappearance until much later and that council is still waiting for a police report. Municipal Silence To verify this complex situation, Vaalweekblad sent formal queries to Sedibeng Communications Coordinator Reggie Moiloa and Spokesperson for the Emfuleni Local Municipality Makhosonke Sangweni on March 25, requesting responses to 12 specific questions regarding: *The chain's ownership, *Whether the asset exchange was documented or authorised, *The timing and nature of the theft report, *Cooperation with police, *Insurance claims, and *Possible consequences for the municipality. Initially, neither municipality responded. However, in a brief reply to a follow-up enquiry, Sangweni stated: 'The matter belongs to Sedibeng District Municipality and all we know is that the matter is before courts and shall await for the final outcome.' No further details were provided, and Sedibeng has remained silent. This limited response comes despite The Citizen reporting in February 2024 that the chain belonged to Emfuleni — and despite ongoing public calls for accountability. No resolution, no accountability To date no arrests have been made, no offical explanation has been provided for the delayed theft report and neither municipality has confirmed responsibility or insurance coverage. The chain remains unaccounted for What should have been a straightforward investigation has devolved into a bureaucratic mystery. The public, meanwhile, is left in the dark about how a R465,000 asset could vanish — apparently without consequence. A Symbol of Dysfunction Beyond the missing gold, the case seems to reveal deeper issues: poor asset management, confusion over municipal property, and a worrying lack of transparency. If the chain was never Sedibeng's to begin with, why did they use it? Why did they report it stolen under their name? And why, nearly two years later, are basic questions still being ignored? Unless authorities speak out, the chain will remain not only missing — but a symbol of dysfunction in Sedibeng's leadership. At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
