STELLALANDER-VRYBURG: According to Freddy Sonakile, DA Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional affairs in the NW, the DA has written to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), requesting an investigation into the failure by the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality to deliver water to residents in the Ratlou Local Municipality. This follows an oversight inspection to the Setlagole RDP settlements on 27 March, where residents reported that their communal taps have been dry for years.
According to residents, access to clean potable water should be the norm, however some residents are forced to travel at least a kilometre to get water, ironically at a tap situated just opposite the Ratlou municipal building gates. Residents, mostly use wheelbarrows to cart water to their homes. The municipal water trucks only delivers water to this community during funerals. This, despite a newly built, but unused, 5.5 mega litre reservoir completed in 2015 just a short walk from the settlements. The communal taps, installed in 2009/10 when the settlements were under construction have not delivered a drop of water for years. “It is deplorable that the Ngaka Modiri Molema Municipality’s motto, ‘Water is our Priority’, has not been realised for Ratlou Residents,” says Sonakile. Sonakile says high-ranking politicians drive into the municipality daily and bear witness to residents queuing for water but does nothing to deliver water. They have no conscience and are untouched by this crisis occurring in full view, even though it compromises the well-being of the residents.
