A senior councillor of the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM), the authority responsible for providing water to the Vhembe region, is being accused of illegally connecting water to his own business premises at Mhinga village.
Cllr Miyelani Chauke, a member of the VDM's mayoral committee, now has to fend off allegations that he is benefiting from free water, at the expense of many other residents. In response, he described the allegations as a political attack, aimed at thwarting his chances to become deputy-secretary of the ANC in Vhembe.
Residents of Mhinga, Boxahuku, Mayitane and Maphophe villages claim that they have not had water for a year now, since their water supply was inexplicably cut off last year. They blame the situation on Cllr Chauke, saying that he had tampered with the main pipeline and illegally made a connection to his carwash business.
One of the residents, Mr Tinyiko Magaisa, wrote to the VDM's mayor, Dowelani Nenguda, last week, asking him to intervene and act against his committee member. In the letter, he states that the issue was raised with the Collins Chabane municipality as well, but no response has been received.
In an interview earlier this week, Magaisa said that the local community had been without water for some time now. "We reported this case of illegal water connection to the Vhembe District Municipality, but it seems they are afraid to come out to disconnect it, because the guilty person is a councillor. This unprofessional manner in which government officials act really amazes us. So, we decided that enough is enough and informed the district municipality that we were going to cut off all illegal connections ourselves," Magaisa said.
One of the residents at Boxahuku also reckoned that this kind of behaviour by a government official was unacceptable. "We need the Vhembe District to take action against [Chauke] because he denied the whole community access to water," he said.
Cllr Chauke is currently also contesting for the position of deputy secretary for the ANC in Vhembe, following the murder of the previous deputy secretary and Collins Chabane Mayor Moses Maluleke last year. Chauke is up against the current mayor of the Collins Chabane Municipality, Shadrack Maluleke, with the conference to be held in June.
In response to our media enquiry, Chauke said he had paid the VDM more than R6 000 to connect water to his business premises. When he was asked whether he received regular accounts from the municipality for water consumed, he said no.
Chauke said that the allegations formed part of a political agenda against him, because he was contesting for the position of deputy secretary. He added that he had since disconnected the water connection that people were complaining about.
The spokesperson for the VDM, Mr Matodzi Ralushai, said no-one was allowed to make illegal connections - not even their officials. "Vhembe District Municipality's mandate will be realised when communities start to take care of water infrastructure. Constant vandalism and illegal connections affect water provision to our communities. If all stakeholders act responsibly, water challenges will be minimised," he said.