Florence Fulufhelo Radzilani‚ the recently elected Executive Mayor for the Vhembe District Municipality‚ is so determined to address “water challenges”‚ she’s even turned down the offer of a new luxury car.

Explaining why she was declining the offer of a R1.5 million vehicle being budgeted for by the municipality‚ she told a briefing on her first 100 days in office this week that the municipality should rather spend its cash on crane trucks‚ water tanks and boreholes.

She said that since becoming mayor‚ 310 cases of water issues had been lodged with her team‚ of which 133 had been resolved and much more needed to be done.

In her mayoral acceptance speech‚ published on the Vhembe municipal website‚ Radzilani signalled that water delivery would be her flagship project.

 “Water is a basic commodity which is the very basis of life itself. All of us here will agree that the main service delivery challenge facing us is water.

 “This is an undeniable reality facing each one of us‚ whether we sit in the PMT (project management team) or in the opposition benches.

 “The problem is made even worse by the persisting drought which has left many of our dam levels low. While we shall continue to deliver water through the tankering system‚ especially in depressed areas‚ I believe that we must at the same time begin to come up with workable solution in the medium to long term‚” said Radzilani.

She acknowledged that there are challenges of dilapidated infrastructure‚ which are contributing to water scarcity.

“As a start‚ I will make sure that there is a team assembled immediately to refurbish and repair all our damaged boreholes‚” she pledged. “We will also at the same time have to come up with popular campaigns to curtail the continuing theft and vandalism of water generators‚ including borehole equipment especially in deep rural areas.”

Radzilani invited voters to judge her time as mayor based on the extent she made good on plans to ensure the delivery of clean drinking water without interruptions to residents.