The FF Plus lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) against the Vhembe District Municipality about the ongoing water crisis, which it failed to address.
Residents of Louis Trichardt (Makhado) and Musina have been plagued by serious water outages for a number of years.
At present, some of the residents of these two towns have been without water for weeks, others for months, on end.
A Makhado bulk water project of R515 million was launched in 2014 and was supposed to have been finalised in 2017.
But since then, residents have been getting only empty promises while the date of completion was simply postponed every year.
The latest promise was that the project would be completed in March 2023.
In the meantime, residents have to drive to boreholes and neighbouring towns to get water, or pay exorbitant prices for it.
These problems were repeatedly reported to the District Municipality as well as the Makhado and Musina Local Municipalities by members of the community and the party.
The FF Plus had asked the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mr Baisikopo Mokamu, as far back as October 2022 and the Premier, Mr Stan Mathabatha, on 6 February 2023 to step in. But alas, nothing has been done.
Clearly, there is no political will to improve service delivery.
There are reportedly several reasons for the water crisis: Load shedding has an impact, diesel shortages for generators, the supervisor on site failed to start the generator during load shedding, and so forth.
None of these reasons explain why the problem has been persisting for many years, and no decisive steps are being taken to ensure that residents have reliable water supply.
This is a violation of residents' human rights.
Without water, proper sanitation also becomes a problem, which poses a health risk to residents.
The people of Louis Trichardt and Musina cannot keep waiting for decisive action.
The FF Plus will keep applying pressure and fighting for residents' right to adequate, clean water supply.
Louis Trichardt and Musina deserve better than the ANC.
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