Friday 17 October 2014Year 6 137th Edition Tel: 013 262 4416

Dirty water scandalin Sekhukhune

Water, a basic human right, is at the heart of adaily crisis faced by our surrounding commu-nities.Hundreds of Lusaka residents in Denniltonhave to risk their life drinking water togetherwith animals from the open well in the village.This comes as a result of water scarcity in theSekhukhune area. Residents say that they fetchdirty water from the well for household usebecause the taps are now dry for months.“The well is close to the dumping site. Some-times we have to remove diapers before we canfetch water from the well. We also share thiswater with animals as the well is in the field andis also open. We now fear that we can contractdiseases such as bilharzias because the wateris not clean,” said resident Mr. Bushy Mamba.He added that the reservoir is situated in Lusakabut it supplies people from other villages withpure water.“Now some of the community members arethreatening to vandalize the reservoir becauseit is not helpful to the Lusaka community mem-bers. The steel tank was also installed six yearsago and we were promised that it will providethe community with pure water but it is notfunctional.When we ask, we are told that a pumpingmachine needs to be installed first before thetank can be used to provide people with cleanwater. But it has been six years now the munici-

pality fails to install the pumping machine thatcan cost less than R80 000-00,” he said.A source who doesn’t want to be named toldthe Dispatch that Sekhukhune District tookover the water authority just to improve theirgrading. He said the authority must be takenback to the local municipality as the communityinteract directly with ward councillors.“Sabotage, cronyism and self-enrichment makeup the cocktail of dirty dealings behind thewater crisis that lead to water shortages in thecommunities. The district municipality want tomonitor water but they fail drastically. Theytook over the authority just to improve theirgrade and budget so that they will get highsalaries.Most community members are complaining toward councillors who serve at the local munici-pality on water crisis issues but there is nothingthe councillors can do because the districtmunicipality is authorizing water budget. Thewater and sanitation department must be takenback to the local municipality and I hope thatpeople will be provided with clean drinkablewater,” he said.

Some of the Lusaka community members doing their laundry at the well near thevillage. They say they also use the water for drinking and other household needs.

After water shortages, that also led to the death of an elderly citizen in Tafelkop, concernedcommunity members, mostly of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members, wrote a letter to theElias Motsoaledi Local Municipality requesting an urgent meeting to deal with the watershortages issues in the village and also in the municipality.According to residents, the meeting was also arranged to discuss other service delivery backlogsin the municipality including, poor roads, incomplete RDP houses and incompetent wardcouncillors.....continues on page 2

Community demands wateranswers

2 DISPATCH FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2014

The situation at Philadelphia Hospital inDennilton is now getting worse. The Depart-ment fails to replace the broken equipment inthe hospital’s theatre. This situation affectspatients who are admitted in the hospital forfractures, dislocations, appendixes and otherproblems that need surgeries.Some patients are waiting for more than twoyears now for surgeries. According to insiderswho don’t want to be named, doctors are urgedto amputate some of the patients in the wardsusing razors. This is against the policy of the

Amputation because Philadelphia Theatre’sbroken equipment

Department of Health. The insiders told theDispatch that the situation is also putting themunder pressure as they are now struggling toperform their duties in a professional and safeway. “Amputations are done after doctors re-alize that the patients’ body parts are startingto rot while they are waiting for proper surgeriesin the hospital. As long as the department failsto repair or replace the equipment in the theatre,more amputations will be performed by thedoctors” she said.One patient who was seen moving around the

hospital during the day told the Dispatch thathe was already turned away twice at MankwengHospital when he was referred for a leg fracture.He said that the hospital refused to help him andhe was told that Philadelphia has its own thea-tre.“I was also told that there are too many patientsat Mankweng who are on the list for surgeriesbefore they turn me back to Philadelphia. Mysituation is becoming worse everyday and I amstarting not feeling my leg lately. I am afraid thatmy leg will have to be removed if I don’t get help

in time,” he said. Efforts to find the departmentspokesperson Macks Lesufi failed when hisphone was always on voicemail. He also didn’trespond to voice messages sent to him by theDispatch. The Dispatch spoke to the LimpopoDepartment of Health’s Media Liaison OfficerSam Makhondo, and he referred us to theHealth Department Spokesperson Macks Lesufifor comment. We sent an email. Makhondopromised that the department will commentsoon but nothing reached the Dispatch by thetime of going to print.

Continues from page 1.... Mr BC Malau, the Elias Motsoaledi Ward26 EFF Secretary told the Dispatch that the water shortage in the area isnow a burden to many community members in the municipality. He saidthat their aim is to try and find resolutions for the problem and they alsorequest the municipality for urgent water supply. He added that theysubmitted a letter to the municipality requesting to have an urgentmeeting but they have been put from pillar to post as their request is notconsidered by the municipal officials. “It is shocking to see tragic andunfortunate deaths of pensioners dying in search of water in the village.Now as the community we want to engage with the municipality to findpossible solutions to deal with the shortage of water and other servicesin the municipality,” he said. “After failing to respond to our letter thatwe submitted on 15 August, we then went to the Elias MotsaolediMunicipal Offices for enquiries at the municipality. We were told to comeback on Monday as the Municipal Manager was not on duty to addressour issues. They requested that we must come with two representativesper ward,” he said. On Monday 13 October EFF members from variouswards in Elias Motsoaledi gathered at the municipal offices to beaddressed by the Municipal Manager but they were denied entrance bythe security guards and the police. The group waited for more than fourhours outside the municipal offices and they were later told that theirmatter is under discussion by the Municipal Manager and other officialsin the municipality. They were then allowed to get in the municipality but

Community demands water answersthey were told to wait outside the buildings. “We waited until 16:H00 andfinally realised that all the staff in the municipality has already left usingthe backdoor. We were left without been told anything or addressed bythe Municipal Manager as promised,” said Malau. Malau concluded:“At this stage we are planning to organize a march to the Elias MotsoalediLocal Municipality offices very soon.The protest will be aimed to find answers from the municipality aboutpoor service delivery we are experiencing in our villages. If the march isnot approved, I can assure you that we are going to march illegally to themunicipal offices because we are now tired of waiting for the municipalityto respond to our grievances.” Elias Motsoaledi Communications Man-

A Tafelkop resident Goodwill khoza(15) is seen with empty containersnear the dry tap at Tafelkop StadiumView.

ager Marinda Burgertold the Dispatch thatthe municipality isbusy investigating theallegations made bythe EFF. “A meetingwill be conducted andthe municipality willcommunicate back assoon as possibleabout the matter,” shesaid.

DISPATCH FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2014 3

4 DISPATCH FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2014

RDP housing scandals are an escalating issuein Moutse. Some community members claimthat their houses have been approved but theywere not built as promised. One of the victims,

Department fully paid contractor butno RDP house builtTebogo Lebese from Moteti Village in EliasMotsoaledi Local Municipality told the Dis-patch that his house was approved last year bythe Department of Housing.

He said that the contractor told him that hishouse will not be built on an empty stand. Tohis surprise, Tebogo says that many houseswere built on empty stands around Moteti bythe same contractor.“I engaged the Community DevelopmentWorker (CDW) in the matter. We both ap-proached the contractor from Rayland Con-struction Company seeking answers but hedidn’t give us a clear response. He later told methat my house will be built this year,” he said.He added that the contractor came this year tobuild another 30 houses but he failed to go andbuild his house as he promised to do so lastyear.“I then took further steps and went to thedepartment for enquiries. I was shocked to findout that according to their reports, the depart-ment allocated the amount of R67 000-00 for myRDP house that was given to the contractor. Iam afraid now that my house will never be builtas the contractor was fully paid and is now

finished with the project,” he said.Tebogo went on: “This is clear corruption andI’m afraid that this kind of incident affects manyunsuspecting community members. Some arestill waiting for their houses for years now. Thisthing affects me in the way that I can no longerreapply as the department has approved myhouse that was never built.”Tebogo concluded by saying that he will fighttirelessly to get his house from the contractorwho was paid by the department and failed tocomplete the project.Elias Motsoaledi Ward 2 CDW Ms Nini Phetlatold the Dispatch that they met with the Hous-ing Department and a report concerning thematter was issued.“We are now waiting for response from thedepartment and we will take it from there. I canassure you that this problem affects other wardsin the municipality but we will get to the bottomof it,” she said.The department confirmed to the Dispatch that

they know about theissue and are still in-vestigating. They saidthat when the investi-gation is final, thematter will be taken tothe office of the man-ager in the Departmentof Housing.

Tebogo Lebeseclaims corruptcontractor failedto build his RDPhouse .

DISPATCH FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2014 5

The escalating incidence of veld fires in Sekhukhune has become anightmare for communities and businesspeople.According to Elias Motsoaledi Ward 6 Councillor Chris Mhlanga, lackof knowledge may be the cause of veld fires that are started by some ofthe people. He said this is affecting the environment negatively as itdestroys the vegetation. He added that most incidents have been seentaking place in areas such as Taereni and Five Morgan in Dennilton sinceJuly this year. The grazing fields are now destroyed by these fires andthe stock is now suffering to get food as a result.Chris said that wildfires can affect climate and weather and have majorimpacts on atmospheric pollution. He said the community must joinhands to promote awareness of wild fires, disseminate information andidentify the fire belts. He added that young people must get educationon how to combat fires in their residences.“Our people must be educated in order to stop these veld fires. Some ofthe causes are reckless disposal of lit cigarette subs, land clearing,hunting and improper household ash disposal. As a community leaderI appeal to the community to consider the problem of veld fires in ourvillages. Each person or institution has the role to play in the fight againstveld fires and proper measures are important to be considered inpreventing veld fires, damage of the environment as well as loss of lifeand property,” he said.

Devastating effects of veld fires in Dennilton

The live stock is now going without food in Dennilton as the grazing fields are without grass after veldfires started by the community members.

Contractor Mr. Willem Van der Linde, fell in a pitand died while repairing a burst pipe betweenMotetema and Groblersdal Town. The unfortu-nate incident happened on Friday 10 Octoberwhen the deceased was with colleagues per-forming their daily duties.Van der Linde, a worker sub-contracted byRiverside Construction Company, died on thescene after he slipped and fell for a few metresinto the pit while repairing a burst pipe supply-ing water from Groblersdal to Motetema.The Sekhukhune District Municipality sentcondolences to the deceased’s colleagues andfamily members.

Contractordied

repairing aburst water

pipe

A 31 year old female was sentenced to 21 yearsin prison after giving birth and killing her ownchild the police said. According to ConstableBoitumelo Matlala from Motetema SAPS, theaccused, Miranda Makang Mogashoa gavebirth on 19 September 2012 in the mountainsnear Shushumela Section in Motetema Town-ship.He added that after giving birth, the accused,who was also a student at Sekhukhune FETCollege CS Barlow Campus, returned to herroom leaving the baby behind pretending noth-ing has happened.“Her friends started asking questions afternoticing that she no longer had a big belly. Shelater returned to the mountains and beat thechild with a stone. She was arrested the follow-ing day after a police investigation and chargedwith murder,” he said.Matlala went on: “The accused was sentencedto eight years in prison at the Motetema Re-gional Court on Friday 10 October.”He further said that the accused was out on bailand was attending court proceedings until shewas sentenced to eight years direct imprison-ment. He concluded by saying that the mem-bers of the Motetema SAPS welcomed thesentence and also spread the message to thepeople that crime doesn’t pay.

Eight yearsimprisonmentfor murderingher own baby

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The search is still on by the Marble Hall Policeafter two suspects escaped from custody afteroverpowering a police officer on Saturday 27September. According to the police report theofficer was gone to give them food when thethree suspects overpowered him and grabbedhis firearm.A suspect has been killed and a police officerwounded during a shoot-out between the po-lice and three suspects at the Marble Hall policeStation. Limpopo Police spokesperson Briga-dier Hangwani Mulaudzi says the men are dan-gerous and must not be approached by mem-bers of the community.The two escaped suspects were identified asFickson Motsepe and Lucky Mokone. "One ofthe suspects was fatally wounded and died onthe scene. The other two escaped but we arebusy trying to chase them. We are being as-sisted by the air wing. So we are hopeful that wewill have them behind bars again. They werearrested for various crimes which include mur-der and armed robbery," added ConstableLethunya Mmuroa from Marble Hall SAPS.

A robbery attempt to a Debonair Pizza deliveryman failed after a police van arrived at the scenein Groblersdal Town. The incident took placeon Monday 13 October in the morning. Accord-ing to the police report, the victim was on hisway to deliver a pizza around town when twomale suspects approached and pointing himwith firearms demanding money. “While therobbers were still busy demanding money fromthe victim, the police van arrived without notic-ing that there was a robbery in progress. Thesuspects then left the pizza man and approachedthe police van,” said the Groblersdal SAPSSpokesperson Warrant Officer StanleyMagaela. He added that after the robbers ap-proached the officer, they told him to raise hishands and took his service firearm before theyfled the scene leaving the pizza man behindunharmed. They used a white Hyundai sedanto get away” he said. A case of armed robberywas opened.

Suspects escaped fromMarble Hall holding cells

Robbers fled withpolice pistol

Lucky Mokone is also wanted by thepolice after escaping from the MarbleHall SAPS custody.

Fickson Motsepe is one of the suspectswho escaped from Marble Hall SAPSholding cell.

DISPATCH FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2014 7

The Marapong collapsed bridge is now a centreof criminal activities in the area. According toresidents, criminals hide in the dongas target-ing community members who crosses the riverand rob them. Some of the victims are evenraped and robbed during the day as the area isfar from the village. The bridge was built in 2011and only lasted for one year after it collapsed on19 October 2012.A community member who wishes to remainanonymous told the Dispatch that residentfrom the near villages including Marapong,Tambo and Elandsdoorn are negatively af-fected by the situation. He said that some of thecommunity members are robbed by the crimi-nals trying to cross the river.He said: “We are now approaching the rainyseason and the river will be overflowing. Thiswill cause people to travel for kilometres whengoing to Marapong Village. Marapong learnerswho attend their lessons at nearby villagessuch as Tambo and Elandsdoorn will have toskip their lessons when the river is overflow-ing.”He further said that they approached the mu-

Marapong collapsed bridge promotes crime in the areanicipality since the bridge collapsed but theyhave been sent from pillar to post. He said afterthe municipality failed them, they approachedthe province but still it didn’t help.“We then took the matter to the PresidentialHotline hoping that it will help but we are stillwaiting for their response.. We demand that themunicipality builds a bigger bridge this time sothat the overflowing water will not wash itaway,” he said.He concluded: “The community planned toorganise a march to the Elias Motsoaledi LocalMunicipality to lodge their grievances. Themarch was postponed after the municipalitytold us that the issue will be taken into consid-eration.”The Secretary of Local Tribal Authority MrMakitla said that the municipality’s disastermanagement came to Marapong after the bridgecollapsed and they promised that they willcome back to fix the bridge soon.“The municipality promised to send engineersfrom Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality tomake quotation in order to fix the collapsedbridge. It has been two years now since they

don’t fulfil their promise,” he said.He added that now the community is planningto boycott services in government departmentsin the area such as Education, Agriculture,SASSA and Justice. He said the protest will not

affect clinics and hospitals.“By doing that we hope that our complaints willbe considered by the government and we hopethat the bridge will be fixed soon,” he con-cluded.

The MarapongBridge collapsedin 2012 due to theheavy rain. Them u n i c i p a l i t ycame and prom-ised to fix it verysoon but the com-munity is still invain after twoyears.

The Moteti Phase 2 Access Road Project is nowcompleted. The project, which was started inNovember last year for Elias Motsoaledi LocalMunicipality’s 2013/2014 financial year, is nowin use for the public.According to Elias Motsoaledi Ward 2 Coun-cillor Alfred Banda Phatlane, the municipalityallocated R10 Million for the 2.2 Km upgradefrom gravel to tar.“Some of our roads were not accessible at all insuch an extent that pupils from Mohlako Pri-mary School had to skip schooling when thenearby river was overflowing. Sometimes theywere urged to travel a long distance in order tofind a safe spot to cross the river. Now we havebuilt a bridge that will make it easier for childrento cross the river to and from school,” he said.He added that the project created job opportu-nities for local residents as forty labourers wereemployed.Banda went on: “The completion of the projectis also benefiting local businesses as now the

Access Road Phase 2Project completed in Moteti

four-plus-one taxis are taking people from theirdoorstep to the Moteti Top Spot ShoppingCentre on a daily basis,” he said.He added that after the roads were damaged afew years ago, Putco withdrew its buses fromentering the village as the roads were damaged.He said now they are in the process of bringingthe busses that travel from Moteti to Pretoriaback in action to serve the community.

The newly built bridge at Moteti Vil-lage helps learners to cross to MohlakoPrimary School during rainy season.

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The Limpopo soccer players’ selections thatwere scheduled to take place on Saturday 11October have been postponed until furthernotice.The postponement was received as a disap-pointment to three soccer stars from Tafelkopbased teams who recently made it at theSekhukhune Regional soccer selections to take

Provincial soccerselections postponed

Mohlosana KaraboNhlanhla Nkabinde.

Benjamin Motshana.

The Secretary of Elias Motsoaledi Lo-cal Football Association JeffreyMtshweni.

The Groblersdal Cluster Soccer League isscheduled to take place next year. Accord-ing to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) ofthe League Mr Madida Ndala, the first roundof the league was supposed to take place thisyear but the officials decided to postpone thecommencing date to next year.He said that this comes after challengesexperienced within the league, mainly lackof sponsorships.“We have stopped all activities in the leagueincluding tournaments. Now we only playfriendly matches that are organized by teamrepresentatives. We will be continuing withthe league next year after the Festive Seasonis over. We call upon all teams to come andjoin,” he said.He further said that as the aim of the leagueis to gain fitness amongst employees invarious government departments and pri-vate sectors, teams are encouraged to comeand take part.

GroblersdalCluster

Soccer andNetball

League tocommencenext year

part in the province.The under 15 boys namely; Nhlanhla Nkabindefrom Junior Bucks in Tafelkop, KaraboMohlosana from Winter Roses, Tafelkop andBenjamin Motshana also from the Tafelkopbased team Red Stars made it to the SekhukhuneRegional soccer team that will represent thedistrict.They qualified during the Sekhukhune Regionalselections held in Tubatse recently.“The boys were well motivated and they wereready to participate in the provincial selection.But we will make sure that we use the time toprepare them even further to stand the selec-tions after the date is announced by SouthAfrican Football Association (SAFA),” saidthe Secretary of Elias Motsoaledi Local Foot-ball Association Jeffrey Mtshweni.