“We need to pray that another prominent person from Nkowankowa dies for us to get better service delivery.”
These were the words of Nkowankowa tavern and car wash owner Noel Chauke as Expanded Public Works Programme workers paced up and down in front of his business patching up the pothole-riddled main road.
The last-minute pothole-patching exercise created a traffic jam for most parts of Friday afternoon as the workers raced against time to ensure the road was in a drivable condition ahead of the arrival of dignitaries for homeboy Tito Mboweni's funeral.
Chauke has seen this movie before. The last time the road which leads to the area's main hospital and Nkowankowa Stadium, where Tito Mboweni's category 2 state funeral was held, was when the area hosted the Presidential Imbizo.
“This road has always been bad, but never gets fixed unless the president [Cyril Ramaphosa] is coming. People of Nkowankowa know this even now, they started fixing it on Wednesday [ahead of Mboweni's funeral],” Chauke said.
More than 50 EPWP workers were on site, others trying to manage the traffic jams with Stop/Go operations while others were patching up the potholes with asphalt.
Despite the road being used by ambulances on a daily basis as it leads to the Letaba Hospital, it was in poor condition.
He said he was struggling to celebrate the fixing of the road and having access to water for more than one day in months.
“We are so used to getting water supply restored for a few hours before it gets switched off, but now for the first time I managed to get my JoJo tank (1,000-litre water tank) filled up,” Chauke said.
In March 2022, Mahikeng residents woke up to a government hard at work, with municipal workers cutting grass and filling the gaping potholes that were a common feature in the North West capital.
Surprised residents discovered that the town was being cleaned up to prepare for a visit by Ramaphosa as part of his Presidential Imbizo roadshows.
Chauke told TimesLIVE Premium that he had mixed feelings because it meant he had to pray and wish that prominent people from the area died regularly.
“Now we should wish that prominent people from this area keep dying for us to get services. We even have had water supply for more than a day,” he said.
Limpopo department of public works, roads and transport claimed the road was scheduled to be patched up in October.
Departmental spokesperson Tendani Monyai said: “The road in question was already part of the October maintenance plan under the household maintenance programme of the department.”
Monyai said there are several roads being maintained in the Mopani district of Limpopo.
“The roads include the road in question, road D3180 from Maphakati to Mpempule. The team is still on site continuing with the work as planned by the department,” she said.
Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality confirmed that residents of Nkowankowa enjoyed extended water supply last week.
“It is true that we temporarily restricted water to certain areas to ensure sufficient supply in Nkowankowa before and during the funeral, as we were expecting thousands of attendees,” Tzaneen municipality's spokesperson Neville Ndlela said.
He said Nkowankowa shares its water supply with several surrounding villages, but “unfortunately the pipeline system is affected by illegal connections and leaks”.
“Restricting water in those areas allowed us to maintain adequate pressure to supply the stadium and its surroundings without interruption. Following the event, we have reverted to the normal water supply arrangement,” Ndlela said.
He said the Greater Tzaneen was a water-scarce area and that they needed to balance the needs of all communities, including the villages.
“This means that when water is distributed across all areas, the pressure in the township can be reduced, which affects supply. We also face emergency situations where we must make adjustments to ensure water availability,” Ndlela said.
He acknowledged that the supply to Nkowankowa residents was not always sufficient, and they were working on addressing these challenges.
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Ann Mhlanga, another resident of Nkowankowa, felt excited that “finally there was a bit of change as the road was being fixed”.
“Unfortunately it had to take a funeral for our road to get fixed ... it means if Tito Mboweni did not die, the potholes were never going to be attended to,” she said.
She also uses the road on a regular basis and said it has damaged cars.
“We've been waiting for this like forever. It [the road's poor condition] has affected us so much that we lost hope, but when we see it being attended to, we are happy,” Mhlanga said.
She said they were used to going without water and electricity in Nkowankowa.
George Mavungu said it was unfair that resources are made available at such short notice despite their protests as a community.
“Last time they worked on this road, it was all because of Ramaphosa's visit, and this is discouraging because we have lots of meetings with the councillor,” he said.
Mavungu said the saddest part was that the main road has been in a bad condition for years without the municipality, the district or the province doing anything about it.
Ramaphosa delivered the eulogy at Mboweni's funeral which was attended by dignitaries, several government ministers, Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, former finance minister Trevor Manuel, Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter and former president Thabo Mbeki.
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