At Magatle village in Limpopo, water is such a scare resource that when residents get it, only cooking and drinking is prioritised and bathing is a luxury.
Residents often have to beg for water from the local police station or walk long distances to buy it from another village with communal taps.
When the police station also runs dry, officers are left with no choice but to transfer detainees to a police station some 10km away.
This has been the life for the 5000 residents of Magatle in Zebediela for the past 14 years.
Communal taps the government installed years ago have done little to quench their thirst as they often run dry randomly.
Edith Kutumela was struggling to collect water using seven buckets to fill up a big drum when Sowetan interviewed her on Saturday.
Water started dripping out of the communal tap next to her house at 4am but the pressure was so low that her 100-litre drum had not filled after 10 hours.
"People of the ANC came here before the local elections and only gave us these T-shirts and not water," said Kutumela.
"The little water I'm going to get from here will be for drinking and cooking and maybe some for laundry. There won't be enough for the four of us to bath. It makes me angry because that's not how we are supposed to live under a black government," Kutumela said.
Maria Maphothoma and her neighbours each contributed R300 to install taps in their yards last year. Their taps ran dry more than two weeks ago.
"The funny thing is that when it's close to elections our water comes back," she said.
Peter Matlatle, who operates a funeral parlour, said his boreholes sometimes broke down and he had no option but to buy water.
"This thing is crippling our business. The water from the borehole is too salty and not conducive to wash bodies with," Matlatle said.
Chairman of the Funeral Industry Regulation Authority, Johan Rousseau, said salt water had negative effects if used to wash corpses. "It could damage skin tissue and cause discolouration and rippling of the fingerprints, making the process of taking the fingerprints almost impossible to register death with Home Affairs," said Rousseau.
A police officer said: "When we also don't have water we are forced to take detainees to another station where they can use toilets and be fed."
sifilel@sowetan.co.za
Water shortage for 14 long years
At Magatle village in Limpopo, water is such a scare resource that when residents get it, only cooking and drinking is prioritised and bathing is a luxury.
Residents often have to beg for water from the local police station or walk long distances to buy it from another village with communal taps.
When the police station also runs dry, officers are left with no choice but to transfer detainees to a police station some 10km away.
This has been the life for the 5000 residents of Magatle in Zebediela for the past 14 years.
Communal taps the government installed years ago have done little to quench their thirst as they often run dry randomly.
Edith Kutumela was struggling to collect water using seven buckets to fill up a big drum when Sowetan interviewed her on Saturday.
Water started dripping out of the communal tap next to her house at 4am but the pressure was so low that her 100-litre drum had not filled after 10 hours.
"People of the ANC came here before the local elections and only gave us these T-shirts and not water," said Kutumela.
"The little water I'm going to get from here will be for drinking and cooking and maybe some for laundry. There won't be enough for the four of us to bath. It makes me angry because that's not how we are supposed to live under a black government," Kutumela said.
Maria Maphothoma and her neighbours each contributed R300 to install taps in their yards last year. Their taps ran dry more than two weeks ago.
"The funny thing is that when it's close to elections our water comes back," she said.
Peter Matlatle, who operates a funeral parlour, said his boreholes sometimes broke down and he had no option but to buy water.
"This thing is crippling our business. The water from the borehole is too salty and not conducive to wash bodies with," Matlatle said.
Chairman of the Funeral Industry Regulation Authority, Johan Rousseau, said salt water had negative effects if used to wash corpses. "It could damage skin tissue and cause discolouration and rippling of the fingerprints, making the process of taking the fingerprints almost impossible to register death with Home Affairs," said Rousseau.
A police officer said: "When we also don't have water we are forced to take detainees to another station where they can use toilets and be fed."
sifilel@sowetan.co.za
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