Time to practise government's Batho Pele pledge, water-starved Rhodes tells Makana municipality

Rhodes University management, students and Makhanda community members marched to the municipality's offices on Friday to demand effective steps be taken to resolve ongoing problems with water infrastructure.

Residents have been without potable water for a week, the latest in a string of outages.

The university suspended undergraduate lectures, tutorials and practicals on Friday due to the severity of the water disruption after a week of relying on tankers to supply its kitchens, residences, academic buildings and offices. 

The community has endured an unreliable water supply for more than a decade, with parliament's portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs visiting the area last year. Committee chairperson Fikile Xasa said then a plan to alleviate the water crisis was presented after consultations with the municipality's leadership. This included promised upgrades at a water treatment works and the municipality’s two raw water sources.

On Friday SRC representative Siya Hlebani accused the municipality of “a disappointing continuous disregard and non-care of the entire Rhodes community”.

“Supply has been inconsistent for more than 15 days. The water went, came back for two days and went off again. In the past week, it has been entirely off,” he said.

“It has resulted in a health risk and affected the wellbeing of students. Many of us can't afford to buy water. There are also female students who feel they can't come to class as they are in their menstrual cycle and they can't clean properly.”

Vice-chancellor Prof Sizwe Mabizela, who joined the march, said the community's dignity and human rights were being trampled on by the municipality.

“They don't care, that is the problem. They don't care about our students, university. They don't care about the residents of this town,” he said.

“We have had enough, we can't continue this way. We have to end this culture and ensure we have a government that puts people first [the pledge of Batho Pele]. They must see to the delivery of basic services to which we are entitled and for which we pay.”

The university contributed the highest percentage to the GDP of Makhanda and if it could not operate effectively the impact would be widely felt in the town, he said. While the university had taken steps to build up its own water supply, including tankers, this was not a fix.

“Half of our students live on the campus, the other half live off-campus. Our staff live off-campus. So self-reliance would mean there is a significant part of the university not taken care of. We cannot separate ourselves from the community,” said Mabizela.

“That is why we need to be united and work together and make sure we have a municipality that cares and that can deliver, not only for the university and the school but for the greater Makhanda community.

“This is an important march in which we express not only our anger and disappointment but asserting our constitutional rights, the importance of human dignity and the need for us to say we cannot continue this way.”

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