Central SA
Mangaung opposition party lashes out at metro for neglecting water leakages─── KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 11:43 Thu, 14 Jul 2022
An opposition party in the Mangaung Metro has lashed out at the metro for neglecting water leakages that have been reported for over a month, alleging that contractors are not being paid and material is not being purchased.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) metro councillor, Johan Pretorius, says for more than a month, the municipality has failed to attend to Bainsvlei water leakages that he reported to them.
ALSO READ: 'Mangaung loses 46% of its water due to leakages'
The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, has previously said that the metro has been losing over 40% of its water to water pipe leakages. This after OFM News reported that his department had planned to take over the two portfolios of Water and Sanitation in at least three Free State municipalities. Mchunu has also announced that at least two projects worth about R500 million were in the pipeline to supply water to Mangaung's residents, who are often conflicted by re-occurring water supply cuts.
Whilst showing how water leakages affect road infrastructure in Bainsvlei, Pretorius adds that there are about 85 water leakages in DA wards.
“I’ve reported these leakages about two months ago and we are still struggling to get the officials here to fix the problem. After I spoke to the HOD, the Executive Mayor, and the intervention team, all they tell me is that they will fix it. After the investigation, we now confirmed that there is no material to fix the water pipes because the CFO is not signing off on the invoices and contractors are not being paid. So we can’t get contractors to fix this for us,” adds Pretorius.
ALSO READ: More private contractors for Metro
OFM News previously reported that an amount of R46 million was allocated to address issues of water leakages and losses in the current financial year with the aim to fast-track service delivery.
The metro recently came under scrutiny for failing to spend infrastructure budget accordingly. This after the Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke’s damning report which revealed that the municipality had spent less than 2% of its infrastructure budget on repairs and maintenance.
ALSO READ: AG exposes Mangaung’s failed infrastructure maintenance
OFM News is still awaiting a response from the Mangaung Metro Municipality.
