Senior ANC official slams lack of water
Former ANC caucus chief of staff Livhuwani Matsila of the Matsila royal family in Limpopo has lambasted the government’s failure to provide sustainable supply of water in his villages in Venda, arguing that his villagers and others were finding it hard to comply with the nationwide lockdown regulations.
Matsila, the then-anc chief whip Mathole Motshekga’s political adviser, said his subjects, including those from various villages in Venda, were forced to share drinking water with animals in rivers.
Matsila also criticised the government’s non-consistent supply of water through tanks, saying that it was putting people at risk of infection because they were forced to scuffle to access the water.
Matsila uttered these statements following a decision taken by his entity, the Radzambo Cultural Foundation in partnership with the Nelson Mandela, Imbumba and Siya Kolisi foundations, to erect numerous boreholes and tanks to help villages, some under his rule, with an alternative source of access to water.
“The water situation is a real crisis as virtually all our villages have no running water. They have to queue in rivers to get water which they share with animals. The water situation has completely compromised our ability to comply with the [nationwide] lockdown situation. We can’t stay home without water,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The delivery of water using water tankers is not working as it is haphazard, irregular and not supplying enough water at all,” he added.
The leader of the Matsila royal family urged the government to revive the controversial Giyani Water Project that was alleged to have been riddled with corruption to ensure that the residents in his village and other surrounding areas had access to clean and drinkable water.
“The department [of water and sanitation] should also revive and replace water infrastructure throughout many of our villages.”
Before taking on the challenge to build boreholes for various villages, Matsila’s foundation partnered with the Siya Kolisi Foundation to donate 500 food parcels in several villages in the Collins Chabane municipality at the beginning of this week.
Matsila added that the donation was made as part of Freedom Day commemoration and to help cushion the coronavirus impact among destitute families.
He said the donation drive was also joined by former Kaizer Chiefs player Kaizer Motaung Junior, who participated in the door-to-door distribution of food parcels.
Matsila said his foundation, with the support of Gift of the Givers, was also working on another beneficiary list to assist more than 10 villages with 200 food parcels.
He explained that the new round of donations would target child-headed families and orphans who are battling poverty as a result of the lockdown.