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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 May 2006 Title: Plans to give farm labour tenants free water and electricity --------------------------------------------------------------- By Sizwe samaYende & Zinkie Sithole Nelspruit - The Mpumalanga government is planning to provide free water and electricity to registered farm labour tenants for the first time in history. Provincial local government and housing MEC Jabu Mahlangu announced yesterday that feasibility studies would be done to see how municipalities could provide free basic services. "My department will then be able to devise a support strategy to help municipalities roll out the programme," he said, delivering his budget speech yesterday afternoon. Labour tenants were forced to work on farms for generations in exchange for residential and farming land. The arrangement did not include any wages. They eventually won ownership of the land when the department of land affairs went on a nationwide drive in 2001 to register them and give them security of tenure so they could no longer be vulnerable to evictions. Free basic services, which are already being provided to townships and households in other settlements, include 6 000 litres of free water per household per month and 50 kilowatts of free electricity per household per month. Meanwhile, MEC Mahlangu said that his department would set aside R3.2 million to help struggling municipalities provide clean and safe water this financial year. He said a pipeline from Bronkhorstspruit had been supplying water to the struggling Thembisile municipality in the former KwaNdebele homeland since April 18. The pipeline provides 20 megalitres of water to the municipality per day. "Our province continues to be plagued by acute water shortages. We will continue with our programme of providing emergency water by water tankers and placing water tanks in strategic points," Mr Mahlangu said. The affected municipalities include Thembisile, Nkomazi in Malelane, Msukaligwa in Ermelo, Steve Tshwete in Middelburg and Mbombela in Nelspruit, he said. They also include Delmas. The Delmas municipality is expected to beat its deadline to build a R2 million pipeline that will provide safe drinking water to residents. MEC Mahlangu gave the municipality until the end of June to complete the pipeline, following a typhoid outbreak last year. "The MEC is very impressed with the urgency with which the municipality has handled the project," said provincial spokesperson Simphiwe Kunene. "They project will be finished by the end of May, four weeks ahead of schedule." The typhoid outbreak was first identified in August last year and claimed five lives according to official government reports. Altogether 610 confirmed cases of typhoid were recorded and more than 3 500 cases of diarrhoea. Most cases were reported in Botleng township where the contents of pit toilets had leaked into the ground water. Mr Kunene said the pipeline connected Borehole C in Botleng to the Delmas reservoir so that the water was first dosed with chlorine before being fed to the public. The municipality has also hired the services of a full time water engineer to monitor the quality of water on a regular basis. Mr Kunene said MEC Mahlangu would inspect the pipeline ahead of its official opening. The municipality wants to draft a feasibility study on the possibility of connecting Delmas to water supplier Rand Water in Gauteng. The project will cost about R100 million. He said a ground water management plan was also being developed and would soon be presented to the council and the department of local government and housing. - BuaNews |
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