Africa: Mopani District Municipality is calling for calm from residents who have been protesting on the R36 road since Sunday morning in what has started as concerns over water supply challenges in the areas supplied by the Nkowankowa Water Works.
The Municipality has since resolved the problem that led to the water supply interruptions, but the protest has continued now with new demands from the protesting residents for Eskom to suspend its load reduction programme.
While the water supply has been restored, it has not yet stabilized because of the low reservoir levels. Our efforts to stabilize the system are now undermined by protesting residents who are preventing our employees who are working on the water scheme, as well as threats of vandalism to the infrastructure.
Working with the Local Municipality, we are coordinating a meeting with all the relevant stakeholders, so we are able to find a solution to this problem. Therefore, we wish to call on residents to remain calm and further isolate rogue elements who seem to be exploiting the situation for their own selfish gains.
Members of the public are urged to refrain from using violence and causing vandalism to infrastructure. We further wish to make an appeal to the residents to allow our team to continue with work as we look for solutions to these new demands through dialogue with community leaders.
