Millions spent, still no running tap water

UMKHANYAKUDE District Municipality says it needs more than R1 billion to be able to get running tap water to all its northern Kwazulu- Natal residents.

This, after one of the district's local municipalities, Jozini, handed over 20 boreholes with electric pumps in a bid to supply clean water to all of its 20 wards.

This move was as a result of Minister of Co- operative Government and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma instructing the local municipality to restructure its budget and prioritise the provision of water as the country fought Covid- 19.

The municipality spent R8 million to drill 20 boreholes and bought one water tanker to ensure there was enough clean water.

In 2015/ 16, when Jozini residents were hard hit, they were forced to drink from the same drying up dirty rivers as livestock because water tankers were scarce. Four years later, these residents still do not have running tap water and were still being supplied with clean water through tankers by the district municipality.

In a 2012- 2013 report, the auditor- general called the municipality out for awarding contracts without following proper procedures. These included one to a company owned by Sibusiso Ncube, husband of then provincial co- operative governance MEC Nomusa Dube- Ncube.

Water pipes in Jozini, worth R146 million lay in the open and had been severely damaged. In 2015, the former administrator of the district municipality, removed from his job after just four months, said the pipes could no longer be used due to sun damage. In 2017, the pipes were still sitting idle in the grass.

DA leader in KZN Zwakele Mncwango said the R8m was wasted on a project that was never finished.