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In view of the much-anticipated “completion” of the Giyani Water Project, ActionSA has filed an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to access reports on the project from the Department of Water and Sanitation, Lepelle Northern Water and the Mopani District Municipality. 

The documents obtained from this application in terms of PAIA will also assist ActionSA in the finalisation of possible legal steps to take to compel the Department to complete this project and provide the 55 villages in Giyani and its surrounds with the water they so desperately need.

This after the Department of Water and Sanitation failed to give the people of Giyani water in March, early this year, shifting the goalpost to mid-August. 

The Deputy Director-General for the Department of Water and Sanitation, Rasimati Mathye, in an interview (https://youtu.be/VMPj5vBg9F4) with Newzroom Afrika, claimed that the department has in fact completed the first phase of the project and will appoint 17 companies that will be hard at work to ensure the Nsami Dam Treatment Plant produces 30 mega litres per day to the residents of Giyani by August this year. 

We are yet to see if this will happen.

Between 2014 and 2022, costs of the Project skyrocketed from R502 million to R4.5 billion. Despite this absurd and exorbitant expenditure, the taps continue to run dry, violating the dignity and fundamental human rights of residents in the area.

Last year, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mnchunu, told the public that the Project would be completed in August 2022, then September 2022. In December, to save face, President Ramaphosa addressed a meeting in Giyani and promised the people that in March 2023 water would be available to communities failing which he would fire his Water and Sanitation Minister Mnchunu. 

March has come and gone, and the people of Giyani are now asked to wait another year and Mnchunu still has his job.

If Minister Mchunu is incapable of taking his job seriously, we will create a situation where he is compelled to deliver water to the people of Giyani.

Issued by ActionSA Limpopo Provincial Chairperson Sello Lediga