NORTH WEST PROVINCE — For over thirty years, the North West water crisis has severely impacted the daily lives of those living in Kopela and Delareyville. As locals continue to fight for their basic human rights, Mayor Khumalo Molefe has stepped forward to explain the municipal project delays that have kept taps dry for decades.
Fetching this essential resource has turned into a grueling daily chore, with community members constantly seen hauling wheelbarrows to secure their daily supply. An 80-year-old local described the situation as a deeply entrenched ordeal that has plagued the region for generations. Without reliable infrastructure, even maintaining basic hygiene like taking a shower has become an overwhelming hurdle for households.
This sentiment is shared by an 83-year-old resident who noted that the community feels completely abandoned by the state. In Delareyville, the situation is equally dire. Another 83-year-old citizen, who relies on a shared communal tap situated just outside her property, highlighted that her community has been battling severe shortages since the dawn of democracy.
The decades-long failure to deliver adequate infrastructure has sparked outrage, with locals accusing the government of violating their constitutional rights. They point to deserted borehole sites and failed contractor interventions as primary culprits. Furthermore, it has been reported that more than R200 million was spent on the irregular procurement of these projects, which currently sit unfinished.
Addressing the mounting frustration, the district municipality highlighted intervention initiatives like Operation Bulela Metsi, designed to eliminate these historical service delivery backlogs. According to municipal leadership, the operations and maintenance unit launched roughly 17 internally financed projects to alleviate the shortages.
Mayor Khumalo Molefe defended the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality’s efforts, explaining that relying on internal funding naturally extended the timelines. However, he assured the public that the projects are not abandoned, noting that most are already 90 percent complete and are scheduled for finalization by the end of June and July.
The primary obstacle to immediate completion, according to Mayor Khumalo Molefe, is a complex financial standoff with the original contractors. These companies reportedly walked off the job and are now demanding multi-million rand top-ups to return and finalize the work.
Because of the years of inactivity, the financial burden to rescue these sites has skyrocketed. “It runs into multi-millions,” Mayor Khumalo Molefe stated, pointing to specific sites like the one in Mahikeng, and adding that the cumulative cost to rescue all the deserted sites could reach anywhere from half a billion to a billion rand. Despite the astronomical financial challenges, the Mayor reiterated the critical nature of the crisis, emphasizing: “Our people need water.”