A North West community has been camping at the home of their traditional leader for weeks, demanding that he hands over keys to a pumping station he locked up, leaving hundreds of desperate residents going for weeks without water.
The frustrated residents from Supingstad, about 80km north of Zeerust in North West, accuse Kgosi Victor Suping of starving them of water.
They said as a result of his action, residents, including the elderly, are now forced to walk over two kilometres to a neighbouring village to fetch water loaded onto wheelbarrows.
Community leader Carter Nokane said they had camped outside Suping’s house in the past two weeks, hoping that he would give in and give them the keys to the pump station, but they were unsuccessful.
“We sleep outside Suping’s house every night, hoping that one day he will realise that what he is doing is wrong and that his community desperately needs water,” Nokane said.
He said the people employed by the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality to operate the water pumping station, are also idling after Suping allegedly refused to hand over the keys to them.
“The municipality provides him [Suping] with 210 litres of diesel every two weeks. We have no idea where that diesel goes because he does not utilise it.
“We don’t know why he believes he is entitled to the engine keys or that he should be providing us with water, but we do know that thirst will kill us one day even though we have plenty of water in our village.”
Last week, Ngaka Modiri Molema district mayor Khumalo Molefe visited the village in the hope of resolving the matter. Molefe instructed his team to break the locks to the pump station after Suping allegedly refused to hand over the keys.
Molefe left the community believing he had fixed the matter, only for Suping to allegedly destroy those locks and install his own.
Suping has vowed he will only hand over the keys if the municipality repairs the boreholes, reservoirs, and other engines that are not working. He said he was looking out for the community’s best interests.
“I am not refusing to give them [community] water, it’s a lie, it is the municipality’s duty to supply people with water, not the chief’s. But I am not giving anyone the keys, let them take me to court.
“The problem here is the failure of the municipality. I don’t work with water and it is not my responsibility to provide people with drinkable water,” Suping told Sunday World.
He said he was only holding onto the keys because he needed to safeguard the motors that were donated to the community by the Magalies Water Board.
Suping accused the Ngaka Modiri Molema municipality of failing the community.
“They [municipality] purchased eight engines that were leaking oil and malfunctioning, and I brought in two new, strong engines on my own. The whole notion now is that they are persuading individuals by saying I do not want to give out the keys to the municipality’s property. The question is, how did the engines end up in my hands?” he asked.
Suping said he could not take the risk since the engine operators hired by the municipality might not know how to operate the new engines.
“The engines are expensive and require professionals. Why should I hand the keys to the engine to somebody I don’t believe has the necessary skills?”
He said a recent report from the municipality indicated that his community benefited from the water projects.
“According to that report, the municipality completed projects in Supingstad for six boreholes totalling R31-million.
“I need the municipality to come and show me those projects because in my village there is no such thing. If anything, I am the one who identified areas where we can get water and they have not paid for that,” he said.
The chairperson of the North West House of Traditional and Khoi-San Leaders, Kgosi Thari Maotwe, has been asked to intervene. Maotwe said he asked the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to intervene.
“People have a right to water, and that should not take a long time to resolve the problem. We are expecting a resolution of that problem in three to four days,” he said.
Maotwe advised government officials and municipal officials to first engage with chiefs about what projects should be implemented to avoid unforeseen
situations.
“I am not sure how the project was introduced to Kgosi and the community but what surprises us as the house of traditional leaders is that Kgosi [Suping] suddenly is an engine operator. We still need to establish why Kgosi has the engine keys.
“We will follow the concern of the community of Supingstad so that we finally have the solution to their challenges,” he said.
The South African Human Rights Commission says it is planning to arrange a dialogue and workshops with traditional authorities in Zeerust before the end of the financial year.
“We have received a complaint on this matter, which is still under investigation. As part of the investigation, the chief will be engaged to ascertain his side of the story.
“To the extent that his actions are denying the community access to water, his actions are in violation of the right to access to water. Options available to address such violation include ADR [alternative dispute resolution] and litigation,” said the commission’s provincial manager Shirley Mlombo.
She says the commission had been having a series of engagements, workshops and dialogues with traditional authorities in North West.
“One of the issues canvassed in these engagements is the importance of municipalities and traditional authorities working together to address service
delivery challenges in traditional communities.”
