Service delivery has ground to a halt at the Mafube local municipality that failed to pay its workers last month, with residents saying they have not seen water coming out of their taps in 10 years.
Sowetan visited Mafube municipality after it emerged this week that the council was one of the four municipalities in the Free State that could not pay its workers and councillors on June 25. The other municipalities are Kopanong, Masilonyana and Tokologo.
Mafube is a small municipality which has Frankfort as its only town and is surrounded by the townships of Mamello, Butayi, Sunrise, Phahamang and Phomolong.
Mamello, the municipality’s biggest township, is the one that has been hit hard by the water crisis.
Every day, residents wake up and place buckets outside their homes that get filled by a truck from the municipality. Two trucks deliver water daily. One has two containers in it while the other has one big container.
Mamello resident Lebogang Tsotetsi had already placed her buckets outside her house when Sowetan met her. She said the area had clean water flowing from the taps until 2012 when the municipality informed the community that it needed to upgrade water infrastructure that included installation of a big pipe.
“They put the pipes but we never again got clean drinking water from our taps. The municipality installed Jojo tanks but the community burnt them down because we wanted water from our taps as we used to get it.
“When we ask the municipality they say the reason we cannot have water is because the pipes that were installed were not the right ones,” Tsotetsi said.
After they destroyed the tanks the community was left dry and residents had to walk long distances to fetch water from another area.
In 2019, the municipality introduced a truck that goes around the neighbourhood delivering water to households. The truck collects its water from the fire hydrant outside the fire station.
“I have a geyser and a washing machine but I cannot use them. For us to flush the toilet we have to use the same water from the truck. It is really difficult but it is what we have been used to,” said Tsotetsi.
Her neighbour Selloane Tsotetsi shared the same woes.
“Our water problem has been with us for years. For some reason the municipality cannot solve it,” she said.
Both the neighbours said water sometime comes from the taps but the pressure is low and supply is unreliable.
The Tsotetsis are the lucky ones as they still occasionally have water coming from the taps because their homes are in low-lying areas. Their neighbours on the hill have not seen a drop in years.
One of those who has not seen water for a decade is Tlaleng Kganye, 70. Sowetan counted as many as 13 25-litre containers in her yard.
“[With] drinking water we make sure that we seal it immediately and bring it inside the house. One [container] for our laundry, we can take it at whatever time of the day after the truck has filled the containers. The water is drinkable. We also use it for cooking.”
Since Eskom introduced stage 6 load-shedding, Mafube municipality has started implementing water restrictions. No-one is allowed to wash their car, water their garden or fill their pool with drinking water. All the cars in Frankfort are now covered in dust.
While the municipality imposed restrictions on residents, Sowetan saw a burst pipe which residents said drinking water has been flowing from for three weeks.
Water shortages are hitting businesses hard too.
Marlize Boshoff, secretary of the Mafube Business Forum, said even in town where she runs a coffee shop, the water supply is not reliable.
“Water is on and off. The municipality time and again switches off the supply because a pipe burst. The quality of the water is also not good. We don’t drink the water but we buy water for drinking.
“Water interruptions can last a day or half a day and that makes it difficult to run a business. Disruptions happen at least once every three days. When we have water, we fill up buckets so that we do not struggle when there are disruptions,” Boshoff said.
She said her business spends about R400 a month purchasing bottled water for her customers.
The water crisis forced Clover, which employed thousands of workers in the area, to move its plant from Frankfort to Durban.
Sowetan tried reaching Mafube municipal manager Josie Ralebenya but he did not respond to calls and text messages.
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