In a surprising twist, the OR Tambo district municipality has blamed some of Mthatha’s water woes, particularly in the CBD, on regular pipe bursts often caused by informal car washers operating illegally in town.
In an interview with a Mthatha-based community radio station on Monday evening, OR Tambo district mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana accused the car washers of puncturing underground water pipes.
“While admittedly there were water challenges being experienced by residents of the district, one of the biggest challenges is a lack of support from our own people.
“If you go to the robots [on the Sprigg Street and Nelson Mandela Drive intersection] near the KSD Pharmacy, there are people who wash cars.
“They are among those causing pipe bursts, so they can get water to wash cars,” he said.
“I have personally gone there on many occasions where we fix pipes and when we return tomorrow, we find the same pipe has been punctured.
“If you drive down Chatham Street, you find water flowing from those punctured water pipes. This means we have a huge problem.”
It was a similar situation on Victoria Road, near St Mary’s Private Hospital, where there were many illegal car wash operators.
The district authority was now engaged in discussions with taxi rank operators to have taps installed.
This, Ngqondwana said, would ensure people did not resort to damaging water pipes.
A team had also been set up by the OR Tambo municipality to monitor areas where pipe bursts often occurred.
The district municipality was appointed in 2003 as the water service provider for five local municipalities — King Sabata Dalindyebo, which includes Mthatha, Mqanduli and Coffee Bay; Mhlontlo, which consists of Tsolo and Qumbu towns; Nyandeni, made up of Libode and Ngqeleni; and Port St Johns and Ingquza Hill, comprising Lusikisiki and Flagstaff, respectively.
In 2023, it was reported that OR Tambo had invested nearly R70m to deal with underground water pipe bursts and leaks to the water supply network in Mthatha and surrounding areas.
The district municipality’s spokesperson, Zimkhita Macingwane, said at the time that a worn-out underground water reticulation system, ageing infrastructure and water outages were to blame for some of the pipe bursts, which often left residents and businesses struggling to access clean drinking water.
On Monday, Ngqondwana said the district municipality was looking at installing modern technology to assist it in detecting pipe bursts and underground water leaks.
“It will detect abnormal flows of water in a particular area, so that if there is a leak or burst pipe, it can report to us on the system.”
Several unregistered car washers interviewed by the Dispatch dismissed Ngqondwana’s claims.
Instead, they accused the mayor of picking on them because they were vulnerable.
Several operators, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation, said they got water to wash cars from some holes that had formed naturally while others said they sourced it from blocked drainage systems.
They also accused KSD officials of harassing and assaulting them in an attempt to run them out of business.
KSD municipal spokesperson Sonwabo Mampoza said the authorities were worried about the chemicals the informal car washers used when washing cars, which degraded tarred road surfaces in the CBD.
They also contributed to making the town dirty, he said.
When contacted for comment, Mthatha Ratepayers and Residents’ Association spokesperson and municipal PR councillor Madyibi Ngxekana lashed out at KSD municipal bosses for continually trying to impose things on citizens.
“We had suggested when they were drafting bylaws to consider engaging with the people who were going to be affected by that new bylaw so that it would not be seen to favour KSD.
“We said get the buy-in from the people and also consider alternative places where you can put them to do their business because we don’t want them to become criminals.
“But all of that was ignored and instead, these young men who are trying to earn an honest living, tell me they are just threatened with arrest by authorities for trying to earn a livelihood.”
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