The Democratic Alliance in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality has submitted a series of questions to the Municipal Manager for written reply at the next Council meeting regarding the disturbing collapse of governance, operations, maintenance, health and safety, and working and living conditions at the Letsitele Bulk Water Plant. This follows a recent oversight visit to the plant.
The visit provided a distressing picture of the systemic collapse of the facility:
- Critical monitoring equipment at the water plant has not been functioning for long periods, making it impossible to track water inflow or reservoir levels. As a result, large volumes of treated water are being wasted frequently. This reflects a serious failure in basic operational management and non-compliance with legal duties for efficient resource use.
- The plant’s infrastructure has been visibly deteriorating for years, with structural damage and broken fixtures left unrepaired. There is no evidence of a preventative maintenance plan or recent Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) inspections. This demonstrates poor asset management and disregard for statutory maintenance responsibilities.
- Building extensions started two years ago remain unfinished, raising concerns that contractors may have been paid without completing the work. This points to potential procurement irregularities, unauthorised payments, and possible irregular or fruitless expenditure in violation of the MFMA.
- Employees required to stay on site lack basic living necessities such as bedding and separate gender-appropriate facilities. These conditions likely violate labour laws, OHS policies, and gender-compliance standards, reflecting a failure to protect and support municipal staff.
- Staff are using unsafe electrical kitchen facilities, with exposed wiring and hotplates posing severe fire and electrocution risks. There is no evidence of compliance inspections by qualified electricians, indicating significant OHS non-compliance.
These conditions are unacceptable. At face value, there appear to be gross violations of municipal, financial, water, employment, and occupational health and safety laws and regulations.
Underlying all these failures is a profound collapse in governance. These failures place basic service delivery—and the health and safety of workers and residents—at serious risk. There is no indication of internal audits, oversight reports, or disciplinary action.
This reflects a systemic failure of transparency and accountability, with officials not being held responsible for mismanagement or ongoing service-delivery failures.
The residents of Letsitele deserve a safe, reliable water supply—and the DA will ensure that those responsible for this collapse are held to account and that urgent steps are taken to fix the plant without delay.