No place to have a dip
Top Town cuts of water, electricity
RESIDENTS of Top Town faced unscheduled water and electricity cuts earlier this week.
Residents had no water supply on Monday from 11am to 6pm. Electricity was off again for about two hours over lunchtime on Tuesday.
People were surprised by the unexpected cuts and said they had been inconvenienced. Nothemba Dyakophu said she could not use the bathroom during the incident.
“The water cut is worse. Water is life and some people need to take their pills daily. We could not cook, nor could we flush the toilets,” she said.
Dyakophu said she had previously prepared for water cuts that were announced last week. “It is better when they warn us beforehand. Last week we prepared ourselves by storing water in containers.”
She was at home watching television when suddenly the electricity went off.
Another resident, Athi Ngwendu, said he was preparing to go and submit application forms at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in Sada when the water and power went off on Monday morning.
“I ended up going later to submit the forms and when I arrived at WSU I was told that the course I wanted to do was filled at 11am.The municipality must fix the problem as soon as possible. The children will go to school with unironed uniforms and some people have to heat water to bath,” he said.
Questions relating to these cuts were sent to both Lukhanji Municipality (in connection with the electricity) and Chris Hani District Municipality (on the water question), but neither had responded by the time of going to print.
ONLY one of the six dipping tanks placed on tender by Emalahleni Municipality in March 2014 has been finished, with four of the tenders given to companies that did not bid, while in one the company that got the tender was placed on the tender opening register after the tender had been closed.
The Rep has documents and has spoken to some Emalahleni councillors and a headman confirming the allegations of foul play in distributing tenders. The Rep has documents on tenders for the dipping tanks in Bankies, ward 10, Mkapusi, ward 12 and Qoqodala, ward 7, Mhlanga, ward 14 and Xonxa, ward 1.
The ward 1 tender was closed after three companies had bid, but was offered to Amlo Trading who did not appear in the register. Dipping tank tenders in wards 7, 10 and 12 were given to Brandrive Trading (Pty) Ltd though it does not appear on the tender opening register. The Rep has been trying to contact the two companies for more than two weeks but to no avail. .
The one tender opening register (for ward 14) in which Brandrive appears, is after the tender had been closed with a line scratched over its price which makes it difficult to ascertain the figure. According to the Corruption Watch website, ‘Step by step guide on tendering for government’, late submissions are not accepted.
Headman Phalazile Mlanjeni said he was handling the issue on behalf of the community in ward 1. “The dipping tank was supposed to be rectified because it is shallow and small. We showed the people from Amlo Trading the old one so that they could take measurements from it, but they did not,” Mlanjeni said.
It was also confirmed the ward 14 dipping tank was partially finished, in ward 7 it was finished but the municipality had not handed it over to the community and in ward 8 it was built incorrectly. “The dipping tank does not work and the person who did this one has been given two more dipping tanks tenders. Amlo Trading does not care because they know they will get other tenders from the municipality,” said a councillor in Emalahleni. It could not be established what the cost of the dipping tanks was. Emalahleni communications officer Luthando Nqumkana did not respond to questions emailed to him in July and October.