Free, unlimited water to corporate business, a few drops to Zinniaville, Ratepayers claim

“The Rustenburg Municipality has demonstrated that is is ignorant of the plight of rate-paying citizens whose Constitutional rights have been violated for several years.

It is therefore shocking that the Rustenburg Municipality who couldn’t manage to fulfill its mandate and responsibility of providing safe and clean water to its citizens for the umpteenth time now, found it easier to organise a heavily armed security patrol to protect itself against the “outrage” of a peaceful gathering who literally has nowhere else to go to air its grievances but indeed to the responsible party”, a member of the Association told Rustenburg Herald last Wednesday morning. 
Calls to “send out the man (security guard) who has violated our rights and who assaulted an innocent member of our association”, were momentarily chanted while Mr Ali Dudhia who was pepper sprayed, was being assisted by bystanders. “The use of strong-arm tactics to discourage rate-paying citizens from exercising their Constitutional rights is a sign of how far fair, responsible and justified (amongst others) action have declined in South Africa in recent years. This is just another indication that a change in political leadership cannot be postponed any longer”, Rustenburg Herald was told. 
Zinniaville Ratepayers’ experience with the Rustenburg Municipality’s water services in recent years indeed read like a horror story - in particular the past year which has seen a total of 252 days without water from June 2022 to September 2023 - an average of 17½ days per month. “And remember - we are constantly being told that Rustenburg is a world-class city”, a woman added. It should be said that on the contrary, this indicative of the otal collapse and faulure of the Rustenburg Municipality to provide water and other municipal services in Rustenburg’”, she added. 
Calls for Rustenburg’s Executive Mayor - Shiela Mabale-Huma to come down from her office to receive the memorandum from the Chairperson of the Association - Mr Shuaib Bham - however fell on deaf ears. So did calls for the Municipal Manager to avail himself moments later. In the end it was none other that Mr Thabang Rampou, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation who accepted the memorandum on behalf of the RLM. 
In addition to the 252 days without water which the Zinniaville community had to overcome between June 2022 and September 2023, several other issues were also contained in the memorandum. Among these the fact that the water usage of several big and corporate businesses operating in Zinniaville or Rustenburg’s Northern Industrial area goes unmeasured and unmetered. “The fact that there are no water meters and that these corporates have their own off-take on the main line from the dam before it reaches the communal distribution reservoir is no secret, either to local, provincial or national authorities. In fact, this heinous act of water-theft was raised quite clearly and unambiguously at the water stakeholder meeting held earlier this year”, according to the memorandum.”It is clear that the idea of a strong, sovereign state, empowered by the people to defend and protect the people from threat no longer exists, if it ever did in the new South Africa. What we have instead is an unaccountable administrative service which utilizes the people’s assets, be it water or any other, to further corporate profits at the expense of our people”, the memo continues. Mr Thabang Rampou - MEC for Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation concluded proceedings by committing himself on behalf of the RLM to respond to the issue within 14 days.