Ngwathe mayor speaks with a forked tongue, claim angry residents

Lies and deceit is how Ngwathe mayor Victoria de Beers has been characterised by angry Free State residents who have been without water for decades.

Noma Majola, from ward 13, said they have been without water for many years now, and that the municipality was not doing enough to make sure they were taken care of as residents.

Majola said she no longer attends the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) meetings as she saw them as useless.

“We attend these meetings for fun. How is it possible that we attend these meetings and on the top of the agenda is the water issue but it’s never resolved?

“All they do is to bring trucks that would make them money, and those trucks only come by when they feel like it,” she added.

Moleko Sedi shared Majola’s sentiments, saying that the water issues were not a new phenomenon as they had these challenges as far back as the previous mayor’s tenure.

Sedi said every mayor that comes into office, always finds ways to deceive the community one way or the other.

“When the mayor was first elected to office, she made unreasonable promises, saying that we would have water in three months’ time. Three years later the entire town doesn’t have water.

“When we question these things, we are told how the former mayor has collapsed the municipality, but during Mochela’s time (Joey Mochela), we had water even though it was not clean, but we had water,” he exclaimed.

In her defence, De Beers said there was no way the community could claim that they have not seen a drop of water from their taps as there was a project still busy trying to fix things and ensure that water comes out of the taps.

“I acknowledge that there are places where water doesn’t come out, but we are working on it.

“Like I said, there’s a project going on to try to fix the water challenges so that residents would finally get water,” the mayor said.

According to reports, it is estimated that the world will run out of fresh water entirely by 2040.

This can be attributed to human activity which will lead to rapid depletion, with the mismanagement of ground water being a top contributor.

While ground water is crucial for farming, providing 43% of water used for irrigation, advancements in drilling technologies have enabled unsustainable extraction practices.

The Star

sipho.jack@inl.co.za