By STAFF REPORTER
Residents across Maphoitsile, Cokonyane, Buxton and other areas in Taung said they have lost hope in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality. This comes after the embattled municipality allegedly failed to provide them with safe drinkable water.
One source who refused to be named for fear of reprisal said: “It’s been months since without a provision of water. However, you will see the so-called leaders telling us to go and vote for them. They are so incompetent and one only sees them when they need our votes. Otherwise, they do not care about service delivery.”
Another source said: “Factionalism at the municipality continues to affect service delivery. We are aware that some politicians are conniving with service providers and benefit from tankering system. Rural water supplies have traditionally been overshadowed by these evil leaders.
“There is no accountability at the municipality, however, that must change. We call on all voters to elect capable leaders who have the interests of the communities at heart. One of the sustainable development goals is the provision of water. Most of us do not have access to clean water and it is heart-breaking because we are forced to use alternative sources.”
It is alleged that the municipality owes Sedibeng Water millions of rands. On 30 September 2021, Sedibeng Water issued a notice informing all residents about scheduled water disruptions across the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District.
However, the water supplier retracted its statement later on. Sedibeng Water acting CEO, Toto Molobye said: “As an organisation, we retracted the notice after an engagement with the municipality. The municipality has raised a concern that the notice was issued without their consent.
“However, it should be noted that Sedibeng Water has tried to contact the municipality to discuss the matter of the outstanding account since July 2021. However, we have been ignored by the municipality since then.”
Molobye added: “It is important to note that Sedibeng Water has held a meeting with the municipality on 15 July 2021 and discussed the outstanding payment and the expiry of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the municipality and us.
“The non-payment of services by the municipality has put us in a very unfortunate position of not being able to fulfill our obligations of rendering effective services to the municipality. Despite Sedibeng Water’s ongoing attempts to engage meaningfully with the municipality, our efforts yielded no positive results.”
He said in most instances, the municipality has actually frustrated all attempts to resolve this matter amicably. Furthermore, Molobye said other interventions and means afforded to the municipality to resolve the deadlock on non-payment (including the Intergovernmental Relations platform) have delivered little to no meaningful success.
“Therefore, based on the above-mentioned facts, Sedibeng Water was left with no other option except to issue the notice,” he said.
Meanwhile, the municipality failed dismally to respond to our media inquiry. On 1 October 2021, the municipality spokesperson, Joel Motlhasedi said: “Afternoon blar. Am on sick leave. Though I will it to the relevant people (sic).”
However, Taung DailyNews can categorically state that no formal response from the municipality except forwarded letters from Sedibeng Water.
The Guardian 
It has been long time Taung people suffering about unsafe drinkable water and fetching water far away, we’ll vote for a party that will bring changes
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