the violent community have running tapes

The Minister of Water and Sanitation Ms Nomvula Mokonyane together with Mpumalanga Premier Mr. David Mabuza, together with other community leaders today visited Mathibela Village in Marite, Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM). The purpose of the visit was to launch the Mathibela Water Reticulation Project.

The project is as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the department and the province of Mpumalanga in June 2013, which MoU brought in Rand Water as the implementing agent for the project, considering the capacity within the entity, as a means of supporting the BLM.

The project will improve the delivery of water and water services to the community within Marite. Water has been a source of unhappiness and a number of service delivery protests in the area.

The BLM has over time been availed of major bulk water infrastructure. The process now is to install the requisite reticulation infrastructure taking the water from the bulk infrastructure to people’s homes or even in other instances, closer to homesteads by means of shared stand pipes.

During the community engagement during the event, Minister Mokonyane observed the challenges experienced by the community of Marite. As is usual for Minister Mokonyane, the challenges of service delivery for women, particularly around water and sanitation which in this instance are her direct mandate and responsibility, raise sharply her activist reality to the fore. For Minister Mokonyane and indeed government, unless the ideal of government is primarily to bring immediate and long-term relief to this sector of our society, the work of government will not do.

Minister Mokonyane said, “We are here as part of showcasing the first 100 days of the current government. The work that has brought us here is to liberate the women and children who are at the coalface of lack of service delivery. We have to liberate them from walking all the long distances to get water. Our freedom as a country cannot be complete or even count if the women and children not liberated in this regard.

“Bringing water to communities must also ensure the creation of jobs. Using Rand Water in the municipality must also assist in ensuring the development of skills and sharing knowledge, leading to those benefitting even attaining the necessary certificates, putting them on the way to being employable or even self-sufficient”.

Further, Minister Mokonyane said “the project to take water to households in Bushbuckridge must be completed by the end of 2015; then all of the municipality must be covered.

Minister Mokonyane emphasised that “even as we install this infrastructure, we cannot afford to have it vandalized. This creates a drawback as the funds for further development then re-directed to fix what is now destroyed. This entire infrastructure is for our own good”.

Premier Mabuza also weighed in on the matter by stating the ideal of the provincial government to work towards “ensuring that Bushbuckridge will be in the eyes of the province till universal coverage is achieved. We will work together with national government and the municipality, holding hands, with Rand water as the implementing agent to achieve this. In all of this, the co-operation will and must include the local leaders and the community broadly. Delivery is possible”.

In his address, Premier Mabuza indicated that “we are a nation on a journey; a journey to rectify all the wrongs emanating from the previous government and colonisation. We must also remember that Bushbuckridge used to be part of a bantustan, with skewed delivery”.

 The reticulation project for Marite needs an amount of no less than R1, 14 billion to conclude. With an immediate need for R344 million to take this project forward, it is crucial for a joint plan and approach to National Treasury for the necessary funding. In this regard, the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Mpumalanga provincial government, the municipalities of Ehlanzeni and Bushbuckridge will have to together conceptualise a sound business proposal, informed by the assistance and input from Rand Water as the implementing agent, to ensure the good work in progress not stalled.

The current phase of the Mathibela Water Reticulation Project is underway; the people of Marite have begun enjoying the benefit of the available bulk water infrastructure in the area now reaching their homes.