A 5km walk with buckets on their heads — and the risk of being attacked by crocodiles while bathing or collecting water — are among the difficulties the people of Tshaulu Tshihalwe village in Limpopo have to face daily to survive.
Despite a series of official launches for water schemes feeding off the Xikundu dam since 2004, residents of the village still do not have piped water and have no choice but to draw water from the weir.
The village falls under the Thulamela local municipality in the Vhembe district municipality.
Thulamela is one of the municipalities in Limpopo that illegally invested in the now defunct VBS Mutual Bank, losing millions of rand that should have been spent on services for residents.
Former municipal manager Hlengani Emmanuel Maluleke was sentenced to five years in jail last October — suspended for the same period — for his role in the approval of an unlawful investment of R30 million in VBS.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority, the investment matured and yielded interest amounting to R735 542.50, which was paid back to the municipality.
ANC Limpopo deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani — now the MEC for social development — is accused of having R300 000 illegally channelled to her for investing in VBS during her tenure as the Vhembe district mayor.
The backlog in provision of water, sanitation and roads in the area in the aftermath of the VBS scandal — which gutted municipalities across the province — is apparent.
When the Mail & Guardian visited the area last week, a man in his late 60s was bathing in the Xikundu dam. The man, who asked not to be named, said he bathed there rather than at home because it would be a “waste” to use water that he had to carry for 5km for that purpose.
Not far from where he was bathing, the remains of two cows that had been eaten by crocodiles floated in the water, a stark reminder of the danger faced by locals and their livestock on a daily basis.
The area at the side of the dam is covered with the remains of fires. Locals said they prefered to cook near the dam because it is easier than carrying water all the way home in a bucket.
Tshaulu Tshihalwe and other villages in the area have dirt roads, along with pit toilets and taps that run dry.
Villagers said they could only get tap water for three hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays but this was not guaranteed.
In some of the villages, residents have had to connect themselves to the water supply.
A resident of Tshihalwe village, who introduced himself as Mukwevho, said the Xikundu dam was unsafe but was the only source of water in the area.
He related the stories of a man killed by a crocodile while bathing and another who drowned.
“The guy who was killed by a crocodile in 2022 was bathing when it happened. It pushed him into the water from behind and then started rolling with him in the water. We tried to block the dam with trees so that it could not drag him deeper into the water,” Mukwevho said.
“Emergency services were called but when they arrived, he was already dead. The other guy drowned in the dam.”
Mukwevho said villagers also had to grapple with their livestock being killed by crocodiles.
“You’ll find that the cows are drinking water and then all of a sudden the crocodiles drag it inside the water and kill it. You just watch it happen because there’s nothing you can do once they grab it into the water. A cow is a huge investment here and to lose it like that is not easy,” he said.
Mukwevho also complained about inconsistent access to tap water, telling the M&G: “The government is failing just to put in pipes for us, so we can get water. The water is there in the dam.”
“They have told us for a long time that they would sort these issues out. During the [election] campaign, they told us that they would resolve the water issues but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.”
For those trying to eke a living out of fishing, there is the constant threat of crocodile attacks.
“We have been doing this for many years; we have had a lot of encounters with crocodiles. In some instances, they will disappear when they see us fishing but in some instances, they will come towards the boat to try and capsize it,” said one man, who declined to be named.
A second man said he had to swim out of the dam after a crocodile overturned the small boat he was in, knocking him into the water. But despite the scary experience, he was still fishing for a living because he had no other option.
“If I get eaten by a crocodile while fishing, so I can get fish to sell and then feed my family, then it’s okay because I would have died trying to feed my family,” he said.
“There are no jobs, the R350 [government] grant is not enough, so there’s nothing else to do.”
“We also can’t vote out the ANC because it’s better voting for people you know than voting for another party which might make things worse. Any party that can fix the water issues here, all the people will vote for it. I don’t care even if it’s uMkhonto weSizwe from KwaZulu-Natal,” the man added.
Most of the people in the village voted for the ANC despite accusing it of causing them pain and suffering. The party garnered more than 74% of the vote in Limpopo on 29 May and notched up similar results across the Vhembe district municipality.
At Tshitumbe village, which also falls under the Thulamela local municipality, the only source of water is a spring that runs from a nearby mountain.
As was the case in Tshihalwe, Tshitumbe, villagers had to illegally connect themselves to a water pipeline running through the area. But the taps ran dry years ago and they now have to collect water from the spring, which is in a bushy area.
Josephine Khomola was among the residents queuing to collect water when the M&G arrived. She said the failure to provide water to villagers was the fault of those in local government and not the ANC as a whole.
Khomola said she would therefore not stop voting for the ANC because it had done a lot for South Africa.
“The old man [Nelson Mandela] went to prison for many years for us and we can’t abandon this organisation now. The people who [President] Cyril] Ramaphosa has sent to provide us water are the ones failing us, not the ANC,” she said.
Khalishi Khumbudzo, who also came to fetch water at the spring, said this was the only source of clean water for the villagers.
“We have given up on receiving tap water. All the taps in this village don’t have water. Despite this place having snakes, we have no other way but to come and get water here.”
Speaking to the M&G after meeting local chiefs in Giyani, Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba said the biggest problem was district municipalities and the national government were the water authorities, rather than the provincial government.
She had told the minister of water and sanitation, the executive mayor and municipal managers that “this is Limpopo and when people are complaining about water, they complain to me, so all of you will account to me in terms of the water”.
“You are not going to tell me that you are accounting to the minister and the president when people want water from me. Even if they don’t report directly to me, I want those reports on a weekly basis,” Ramathuba said.
She said the Vembe and Giyani municipalities had given the ANC 80% of votes and therefore she would not “sleep” or allow anyone to tell her the water issues were not her mandate.
“If you don’t want me in your space, deliver water. If you don’t deliver water, I’ll be in your space,” she said. “Give us space; we are here.
“We know that the people love the ANC and voted for us and that is why we are going to make sure our people do not regret their votes.
“We can never take the votes for our people for granted.”
Asked about the state of roads in the province, Ramathuba said 13 400km out of 20 000 km were neither tarred nor paved.
Residents were frustrated at the “unacceptable” lack of maintenance, she said. Even if the government was to just properly maintain the gravel roads, residents would be happy enough, she said.
“The problem is that, even when people go and protest for roads, you just give them a letter of commitment when you know … there’s no money. We’ve seen this happening and some of the officials are still doing that.
“We are going to fight them on that,” Ramathuba said.
“When you are doing work and you are listening to your people and they see you re-gravelling the road, they don’t get angry as [they do] when you are not there talking to them.
“That’s why I know the anger of the people because of VBS, the anger of our people because of roads or because of water. I am here and (not sitting) in the office … because the voters are not in the office.”
