South Africa: The leadership of uThukela District Municipality interacted with the political leaders, community members and some Councillors of Okhahlamba Local Municipality on ways to resolve water supply issues in this area.
Recent water challenges within uThukela District prompted the Speaker, Cllr TY Nqubula, Chairperson of Water and Sanitation, Cllr MM Khoza, Ministerial Representative Mr JN Madondo, Senior Managers and Councillors of uThukela District to embark on a fact finding mission. They visited different wards in Okhahlamba, where most areas are experiencing water shortages.
The main purpose of the visit was to find out the root cause and devise plans to remedy the situation. The Okhahlamba public engagement session follows other recent public engagements led by His Worship the Mayor, Inkosi NB Shabalala, together with his municipal delegation and Councillors in areas such as Ezakheni and others.
Interacting with community members, Speaker Cllr Nqubuka said, “As servants of the people, our duty is to serve our people. We came here in Okhahlamba to monitor and observe the situation about how we can improve the water supply in this area. We don’t want you to feel neglected because that will prompt you to resort to violent service delivery protests. We have noted your serious concerns about the malfunctioning of water pumps. This issue deserves urgent attention. But we are happy that the water scheme that is being built in Dukuza is almost complete and it assists in alleviating the problem of water shortages”.
The Speaker went on to say they will compile a report and present it to Mayor Inkosi Shabalala and Municipal Manager MB Mnguni so that, as the council, they deliberate and interrogate the report. Further, she said the main cause of the lack of water is load shedding, which prevents the reservoir pump stations from pumping more water.
She said they were confident that the issue of water challenges will be a thing of the past. Cllr Nqubuka then urged the community to liaise with their local Councillors if they have any service delivery issues.