Six years: Ficksburg still struggling
Tatane’s widow buys water in Lesotho, roads remain bad
The widow of slain community activist Andries Tatane is angry that she and her community have to buy water in buckets from Lesotho despite her husband paying with his life to have the resource accessible.
Every other day Rose, a single mother of one, has to hire the services of a bakkie in her township of Meqheleng in Ficksburg, Free State, to fetch water in Maputsoe, a town across the Lesotho border.
About 3km from her township house is the busy Ficksburg border post.
Despite her house having all the necessary plumbing and taps, Rose said they hardly had any running water.
“I’m very angry that six years after my husband was killed by police for fighting for service delivery, I’m still subjected to lack of water.
“Every now and then I have to pay money to get my buckets across [the Caledon River] to Maputsoe for water. It’s humiliating. It’s like he died for nothing. This municipality continues to humiliate us.”
She added that their humiliation over water shortage was made worse by the fact that their town was on the banks of the Caledon River, “and yet our taps are dry”.
Tatane was killed on this day, exactly six years ago, during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg. He was hit in the chest by police rubber bullets.
Most Meqheleng residents said much hasn’t changed since the incident.
But according to the 2016 statistics by StatsSA, Ficksburg seems developed, with at least 94.1% of its 5 400 population having piped water inside their homes and 97.7% houses with flush toilets, while 97.1% live in formal dwellings.
However, residents said all these had little meaning with no water and streetlights.
“Roads are riddled with potholes. Water supply is erratic and unreliable,” said Lerato Tau, a resident.
DA councillor Isak Vries said the water shortages became worse from October last year. He said the quality of water has also deteriorated.
Sowetan witnessed many residents using buckets to collect water from communal taps.
Setsoto municipality’s spokeswoman Moroesi Gaba blamed the water challenges on old, damaged pumps supplying water from the Caledon River.
“The municipality has appointed a service provider who is busy with procurement of new pumps. These pumps are only manufactured overseas, therefore it will take time to get them to us,” Gaba said.
The municipality has since sanctioned water restrictions, with water only available between 4pm and 9pm, and 4am to 9am daily.
Gaba added that the water crisis had taken most of the council’s budget, resulting in the neglect of other services such as road maintenance.