Marchers demand fence around killer canal

ANGRY Addo residents marched to the Sundays River Valley municipality office yesterday demanding a canal in the area be fenced off.

The residents claim 16 lives were lost last year due to the unfenced canal.

Organisers the Makukhanye Rural Movement want the municipality and the Lower Sundays River Water User Association to take preventative measures to put an end to the deaths.

The Lower Sundays River Water User Association owns the canal.

The municipality and the association said they hoped to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Rural movement chairman Siyabonga Modikoe said the canal had been a danger since a fence around it was stolen four years ago.

“We have counted up to 16 people – mostly children – who died in the canal last year,” he said.

“We demand clean water for Sundays River as well because some people drink from the canal, while dead people and dogs are dumped there.

“The government has been failing us and its lack of action shows that black lives – especially rural poor lives – are not important to it.

“They only care when it comes to votes.”

The NGO also wants the families of the victims to be provided with counselling.

Modikoe said the water association had said it had no money to fence the canal. “They told us we should rather educate our children about not going to swim in the canal,” he said.

Sundays River Valley mayor Zolile Lose, who was in East London yesterday, said he had been surprised when he heard of the NGO march.

“I had called them to a meeting instead of marching, but they chose not to show, making me wonder if there is another motive involved.

“The fence was stolen, but we are in consultation with the people who own it.”

Modikoe said the NGO had decided not to attend the meeting with Lose because it did not want to “dance to their tune”.

The water association’s chief executive, Harms du Plessis, confirmed meetings had been held with the municipality and also the Human Rights Commission, to which the matter had been referred.

Du Plessis said: “In the last three years, four or five people died. We take this matter seriously, hence we are engaging with the municipality.”

Kirkwood DA councillor Karen Smith said the party would support any positive intervention that would prevent a further drowning.

‘ Up to 16 people – mostly children – died in the canal last year