Eastern Cape co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Zolile Williams is due to meet authorities of the troubled Makana municipality in Makhanda to announce intervention by the provincial government led by his department.
Williams is expected to intervene in the municipality after water disruptions that even forced Rhodes University to stop classes on Friday last week and embark on a protest march against the Makana municipality.
Williams will use Section 154 of the constitution to intervene in the municipality.
This allows Williams to send in officials to assess and address challenges in a municipality, including infrastructure failures, financial mismanagement and service delivery problems.
Williams’ spokesperson Pheelo Oliphant, said: “The MEC is evoking this section to support that municipality because it is in trouble.
“They are unable to carry out their functions.
“Part of the intervention is that the MEC will support an expert engineer, someone who is very knowledgeable who will start immediately there.
“Administrative interventions are already under way.
“He is going issue a secondment from his chief financial officer in Cogta and help them with revenue collection.
“The present rate of revenue collection there is 54%, which means it is below the threshold. The maximum must be 95%.
“The old water infrastructure, which is leaking, will be closed because the municipality is losing 40% of the water because of bursts and leakages.”
DA MPL Vicky Knoetze welcomed Williams’ commitment to implement support.
She said further that during a meeting with Williams, a DA delegation secured his commitment to finding long-term, sustainable solutions to the problems facing Makana residents.
“We appreciate the MEC agreeing to meet and discuss viable interventions that could be implemented and for committing to establishing platforms for ongoing discussions around local government issues going forward,” Knoetze said.
“The DA, as the official opposition, is committed to working with the government to offer our ideas and solutions to the myriad challenges our people face, while fulfilling our duty in holding the executive to account.
“This is how we move the Eastern Cape forward and ensure that we contribute to bringing change to our people.”
The town has been battling with water demand exceeding supply, ageing infrastructure, excessive leaks and pipe bursts, which have resulted in major water losses.
Last week’s Rhodes protest, which was led by vice-chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela, along with the SRC, was aimed at pressing the government for solutions.
But while the protest led to some improvements, with water returning in some areas, other parts of the town continued to experience irregular shortages.
The recent outages were due to a strike by municipal workers.
Recently, residents and the Rhodes University community have been flooding social media with messages about not having water for weeks, which is still ongoing after the march.
“It is so frustrating! I hope the meeting that Rhodes and other stakeholders had with the municipality will pay off somehow, fingers crossed,” one resident said.
Another one said: “There’s nobody that actually cares!
“Yes, Ilchester Road is a nightmare, we are forgotten. I am unimpressed; my real adjectives are removed for public decency.”
Rhodes residences on campus such as Olive Schreiner, Hobson House, Goldfields and Winchester House have all had water after the march.
However, residences such as New House are still without water.
Some of the off-campus student accommodation in Beaufort Street, Sunnyside, New Street and Cawood Street and areas around Fort England have not had water.
In response to the ongoing crisis, the Student Representative Council (SRC) has taken proactive measures and is supporting students by distributing drinking water.
One student said: “After the march, in some areas, the water came back immediately. There was an improvement, at least.
“However, with us for the past two weeks going into three, there hasn’t been water.
“We use tank [water] to wash and cook, and drinking water, since now the SRC is offering free water.”
One of the crèche owners in Makhanda, who asked not to be named, said: “Even though I have several tanks on my property, with no water for that long, all my tanks ran dry.
“I had to close my school, thankfully only for a day, as we didn’t have water to flush toilets or clean classrooms or clean apparatus.
“I can’t run a school in an environment that is unclean. It’s detrimental to the health and safety of my learners.”
The community is frustrated and demanding answers from the municipality.
“I have plenty of questions for our municipality, mostly relating to their incompetence,” one of the residents said.
“Most of our water problems stem directly from incompetence.
“If our water system was properly monitored, properly maintained, we wouldn’t have pipes bursting and valves being faulty.”
Rhodes' spokesperson Christelle du Toit said water at the campus was fully restored.
“The restoration of the water supply to the University has been gradual from the day of the march to the municipality,” she said.
However, she said the university had backup measures like water tanks at kitchens, residences, and administrative offices, with newer residences and facilities equipped with greywater harvesting systems.
Du Toit said the University would work with the community and civil society to ensure greater accountability for the provision of essential services.
Makana spokesperson Anele Mjekula could not comment by the time of writing.
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