Residents of the dysfunctional Ditsobotla municipality in the North West, that has been struggling with water provision, are hopeful that taking part in the upcoming local government elections will go a long way in changing their lives.
Access to water is one of the biggest issues for voters in Ditsobotla in Litchenburg. Going for days without water is a normal.
A struggle for water has been at the centre of their daily struggles for the last 10 years or more in some of the hardest-hit areas, mainly due to ageing infrastructure and lack of investment.
One of the most affected areas in the township of Boikhutso in Litchenburg is Jerusalema and Ext 3, who solely rely on a boreholes for water.
One of the boreholes was only opened about a month ago and is a hive of activity all day long, with residents queuing up for water pushing wheelbarrows with all sorts of plastic containers.
Most of those that Sowetan spoke to said access to water is the main reason they have decided to cast their votes on November 1.
Resident Dipuo Kati, 37, said even though she has been voting in the local government elections, she still hoped that her vote can bring about change.
"I am still voting for change despite not seeing much of it but I don't know if change will come this time around," Kati said.
She was among a dozen women patiently waiting for their turn at a communal tap which has been brought to the community by AfriSam, a cement company that drilled boreholes and built a water reservoir for communities of Ext 3 in Boikhutso.
"We've waited for so long for water and I'm happy there's access but we still have to walk a distance to get to the communal tap," Kati said.
She said she also hoped that whoever would take over their struggling municipality would ensure that there are better job opportunities for those who are unemployed and hopeless.
Independent councillor candidate Letsholo Mtlhambe, who was an ANC councillor in ward 3 which is largely made up of RDP homes and an informal settlement,
said he approached AfriSam and asked them to donate the reservoir and drill boreholes in his ward and believes that despite not being considered by the ANC his community would choose him once again.
"I didn't register myself to be an independent councillor candidate, it's these people that went to the IEC (Electoral Commission of SA) to register me after the ANC opted to go with another person," Mtlhambe said.
He is hopeful that the plan he made to bring water to his community could unlock another term for him as an independent councillor.
Catherine Nonyane, 37, also from ward 3, said although she still has to decide who she gave her vote to, she hoped her vote would ensure that their struggle for water comes to an end.
"We want water much closer to our homes. It would be great to have a clinic as well," Nonyane said.
A woman who was with Nonyane jokingly said: "If it was possible, we would vote for AfriSam because they are the reason we have water right now."
Ditsobotla's Facebook page is riddled with regular notices of water outages.
Between September 1 and October 16, Ditsobotla issued 17 notices of water supply cuts and interruptions in more than a dozen areas on its Facebook page.
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