Why Sterkspruit wants to secede

THE last time Sterkspruit made national news was five years ago. Then, as now, it hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

In 2008, 140 babies from the small rural town abutting Lesotho and neighbouring Barkly East were killed by contaminated water.

This time around, Sterkspruit is at the centre of violent efforts to secede from the Senqu municipality and become an independent town.

As was the case with Sasolburg's demarcation protests in January, Sterkspruit residents have run amok, shutting down businesses and schools and charging motorists a toll to travel on the main road, the R392.

Nkosiyethu Mgoqi, 15, was shot dead by the police on February 15 during the protests and more than 250 people have appeared in court on charges of public violence.

Protesters have given Cooperative Governance Minister Richard Baloyi a 30-page dossier of complaints and demands - ranging from the appointment of a chief financial officer who only has a Grade 10 to a call for secession to speed up the delivery of basic services such as housing, running water and tarred roads.

Other complaints included:

The granting of more than R2-million in performance bonuses to six council directors in 2012;

The disappearance of R600000 from the municipality's bank account. Officials said, however, that R335000 had been recovered but the rest had been reported as stolen; and

Allegations of corruption and nepotism.

Many here believe their neighbours in Lady Grey and Barkly East, which also fall under the Senqu municipality, have been favoured by local officials.

Sterkspruit Civic Association secretary Thembalethu Fikizolo said: "In Lady Grey they have built more houses than they have people who need them. Our people have little access to basic services because this municipality simply doesn't care."

The Department of Human Settlements said the whole of Senqu municipality needed 10761 homes.

The government had delivered 1790 houses and a further 2582 have been built but not yet allocated. Of these, 1000 were built in Hillside, Sterkspruit, but they did not have sanitation services.

"More than 80% of Senqu's 135000 people live around here and the municipality says we are the economic hub," said Fikizolo. "But the few developed roads we have are littered with potholes."

The council said another 6000 houses, all with water, electricity and sewerage, would be ready by the end of 2016.

At the moment Sterkspruit gets its water from the Holo Hlahatsi Dam - but the pipes bypass Jozana's Hoek, which is right next to the dam. Instead, these villagers have to make do with water trucked in by tankers on terrible roads.

Sterkspruit itself is divided into rich and poor sections, with the R392 marking the fault line. Those living in Extension 1 seem to have all the basic services, but on the other side of the road in Tapuleng residents still use pit toilets or septic tanks.

In Tapuleng there are no street lights and residents have to rely on communal taps.

In villages closer to the Lesotho border 24km away, service delivery remains meaningless. Here, villagers and their livestock and pets share polluted water from the closest streams and rivers.

Nolundi Soldaka, 27, a housewife and mother of two from in Dulcies Nek, about 10km from Sterkspruit, said her children, aged 10 and six, suffered severe diarrhoea at least once a month. "We don't like using this water but we have no choice," she said.

The municipality is planning a R48-million upgrade of water treatment works and bulk lines in Sterkspruit and has started a R100-million expansion of the water treatment plant.

It will also spend R110-million on its waste-water treatment plant, R7-million for a new refuse site and R15-million on upgrading the cemetery.

Acting municipal manager Palesa Bushula said R18-million had been set aside for projects this year.

Baloyi has visited Sterkspruit twice this year - initially in January, after the community wrote to him warning that it planned to shut down the town.

He returned two weeks ago to introduce members of a national task team who would be investigating their complaints. But he was booed by residents gathered to hear him speak - first, because he could not speak Xhosa and, second, because he told them only the demarcation board could deal with their demand to secede.