Rustenburg local municipality to the community of Paardekraal – Yellow water for high price anyone? Well you all getting it anyway.

Community Alerts/Olebogeng Motene/Rustenburg/05/04/18

There is a township located 7km from Rustenburg CBD which is under the Rustenburg local municipality with some of Anglo operations near by.

I have been observing the water in the area over a period of a two weeks and results are unsatisfactory. The water that is to be for human consumption appears yellow in color if not yellow it has soil particles which appear at the bottom of  a glass.

This are some of the water charges for the household am visiting.
1. Water consumption per residential R144. 91
2. Standard container per week R146. 67
3. Water basic charge R127. 84

I was unable to visit other households to compare their bills. However I’ve had an informal conversation with some of the ladies around the neighborhood and they have mentioned that they have noticed the water color and volume  vary each week or even stoppage without notice. This pose a challenge to their house chours such laundry as their white clothes are at times stained. They know the health implications this have in their lives but those who can afford to buy bottled water do purchase or boil the water before consumption (Find pictures of kettles or boilers to see what the water leave on appliances used to boil the water) , however most just drink it as it because even electricity tariffs are rediculousy high.

I had asked Mrs S (wishes to be named as such) from Paardekraal ext 3 on how will 15% VAT hike will possibly affect her and her family, especially payments towards the municipality and this is her response “It’s been tough with 14% now an extra 1% which we don’t know how it will be  applied to services. This simply means tougher days ahead, already I owe the municipality over R20 000 and they deduct 50% off my prepaid electricity purchases amount . This has lead to cutting off most some household necessities” said Mrs S.

When trying to figure out why the water has been flowing in lower volume and in this color I found that it is alleged that the municipality employees have been striking and almost 100 were laid off, hence most of the services have been poorly rendered to the public. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to contact the municipality for comments. “Rustenburg municipality needs a serious audit” said Mrs S.
By Olebogeng Motene