The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in the North West says local government in the province is in a state of paralysis. They will next week hand over two investigative reports to the Premier of North West Bushy Maape containing findings and recommendations of the SAHRC on the state of local government. At the centre, is the lack of water provision to many communities in the province.
“We have been without water since the 17th of February. We tried to talking to the municipality, but nothing has been done till today,” a community member says.
“The problem of water shortage in Bray is not a problem of long time. There was not even a drop of water in Bray for eight to nine days. Schools were suffering, clinics were also suffering. As we are speaking now, water is only available for 45 minutes every morning – after 45 minutes there’s no water until the next day.” another community member added.
These are but some of the challenges many communities are faced with across the North West province. They are forced to spend days without water, and in some instances when there is provision, the water is not suitable for consumption. As a result, the South African Human Rights Commission says it has conducted a series of investigations and inspections in various communities, regarding lack of water provision. The Commission’s Provincial Manager in the North West Osmond Mngomezulu says they will hand over reports on their findings and recommendations to the provincial government next week.
“We will be telling a story of local government that is in a state of paralysis, municipalities that are not delivering water to communities – but also then presenting on the actual reports where we’ve conducted investigations. The step that the commission takes now is one that wants to enforce consequence management because there must be consequence for none compliance with the constitutional institutional provisions,” says Mngomezulu.
A Local Government expert, Berry Hanyane says government is failing to ensure proper management of water and take relevant steps against those responsible for these failures. He says there also has to be strategies to capacitate people and maintain the infrastructure.
“Does government have an asset register? Can government tell us how many streams are there? Can government tell us how many dams are there that are owned by government, partially owned by government and private concerns as well as those owned by private concerns? If it wasn’t for the drought, we wouldn’t know that there are water entrepreneurs. How many of those resources where high jacked in the interest of a particular few? So government must look into that immediately and secondly the issue of awareness and education when it comes to converting water,” says Hanyane.
Efforts to get clarity from the Department of Local Government on what they plan to do to address the lack of water provision in the province were unsuccessful.
VIDEO: Minister Mahlobo apologises for recent water stoppages in the North West
