THE LONG STRUGGLE TO ACCESS OF WATER IN MOTLHABE

Community Alerts/Lentswe Buda/Motlhabe-Rustenburg/30 July 2019

The 87 year old Motlhabe village based in Rustenburg district under the Moses Kotane Local Municipality has been struggling to access water since the establishment of Motlhabe in the year 1932. The community is based on one source of water which is borehole water. Motlhabe is a rural area based in Pillanesburg Mountains 85 kilometers from Rustenburg. It is an area with a lot of old age people. 84-year-old Mr Steve Moremi who lives alone was kind enough to share his experience about the issue of water as a resident in Motlhabe. Mr Moremi survives by buying water from a close-by home which is about 400 meters from his home (R5.00/20litre), since he can not push a wheelbarrow he is forced to hire a young kid from his neighbor and it hurts him because he feels like he is encouraging child labour, in calculation he spends over 10% of his old age grant on water. “we are never informed about this issue and we have no idea to who shall we seek help from” said MR Moremi.
Times at some Pilanesburg Platinum delivers water to the community after so many calls and days even weeks which we believe it is Magalies water that comes from the nearby reservoir which is basically in Motlhabe but not providing the community. The sad thing is that the community is not aware of a lot of things that are happening in the community such as the released 2019 water service budget which is expected to provide the community of Motlhabe. The local clinic which is in Motlhabe provides a number of 13 surrounding villages from both ward 6 and 8 as well as migrated employees from both PPM and RMDC yet the clinic also do not have water.
76 year old Mama Mable Mabuza who lives with her mother and grandchildren says sometimes do receive water from tap but at some times it can take over two months not even a drop from tap and they would stay un notified of when to get water and when you take further steps to ask what the issue is you would be told that the is no electricity since the municipality promised to send it weeks even months ago. IT’S HARD FOR THE COMMUNITY OF MOTLHABE AND THEIR LIVESTOCK.

By Buda