Makana ratepayers’ rage boils

Scifest hit as taps run dry again

ANGRY Grahamstown residents invaded the city hall yesterday demanding Makana officials sort out ongoing water shortages – or face a rates boycott.

The latest dry spell has left thousands of homes, businesses, 3 500 Rhodes University residence students and several boarding schools without water since last Friday.

Rhodes University alone has been spending R115 000 a day trying to keep its campus – which attracts 7 000 people a day – running.

Tankers have been trucking in water from East London for drinking and to keep certain bathrooms working. Disposable cutlery is being used at mealtimes.

The university yesterday said that besides the health risk, the erratic water supply threatened important research – particularly in science and health science – as the institution required more than 1.45 million litres a day to function properly.

Rhodes media liaison Zamuxolo Matiwana said the municipality had not provided solutions to the problem despite undertakings to do so.

Recent promises by municipal officials to tap into local expertise – including university experts – seemingly amounted to nothing when university attempts to contact senior officials over several days failed.

The ongoing lengthy outages have left the university contemplating building a water reservoir for the campus that would hold five days’ capacity – or 7.25 million litres.

Construction costs could run to R65-million. “Without this the university will not be like North-West University recently, which closed its doors until the municipal supply was restored,” Matiwana said.

About 100 angry Grahamstown business owners and residents yesterday invaded a meeting between councillors and municipal officials to warn acting municipal manager Thembinkosi Myalato to come up with a plan or face a rates withholding campaign or the high court.

Some residents arrived with toddlers and babies while another helped 90-year-old Roz Parker up the steep stairway to the council chamber. Grahamstown Business Forum chair Eugene Repinz said the latest outage during Scifest Africa – which attracted more than 66 000 people – would be catastrophic if it happened during the national arts festival.

He urged officials to come up with a timeline as soon as possible to sort out the problems.

Myalato promised to come up with answers by the end of the month.

The anger of the mainly white crowd – who stamped and clapped their hands at times and even chanted “water, water” – seemingly caught politicians and officials off guard.

Apologies by Myalato for the water problems caused by a rusted pipe fell on deaf ears as residents sought solutions instead of blaming infrastructure dating back to the early 1960s.

Raphael Centre director Jabu van Niekerk said they had been unable to feed Aids patients their only daily meal because of the water shortages.

Guesthouse owners said bookings had been cancelled by unhappy Scifest visitors.

Organiser Sally Price-Smith said the days of the local authority “burying its head in the sand” whenever there was a problem were over.

“The problems are caused by incompetence … the mayor gets a fancy car but the people have no water.” —