Tankers a day in John Smith Street

■ Joe Dreyer

A war is looming and the Greater Tzaneen Municipality is doing very little to stop it. After countless reports by the local media, numerous complaints by the rate payers of this town and even a drive initiated by opposition parties to manufacture expensive locking mechanisms for fire hydrants (funded by donations from the residents), the illegal drawing of water from hydrants by private water tanker operators continues unabated.

Bulletin has reported extensively on this hot-potato topic and we have even exposed the head of the GTM traffic department, Johannes Malatji for his involvement through our discovery that he in fact owns at least one of these water tankers. In fact, the GTM admitted that they knew of his involvement and in a response to our media inquiry, the director of communications for the municipality, Neville Ndlala inadvertently admitted that Malatji was “drawing water like the others”.

Malatji has not yet been reprimanded and the reports have suggested that his water tanker is still operating. Rumour has it that he now brandishes a permit allowing him to draw water.

When the issue of water tankers first made headlines, the GTM attempted to defend the private water tankers by claiming that there was a water shortage in the rural areas, and that these tankers were assisting the municipality in delivering water to the affected areas. This was because the GTM did not have enough trucks in their own fleet to service the demand.

This is where the situation becomes confusing as at one point the communication lines were blurred with the municipality stating that they had a list of so-called registered sub-contractors who were paid by the GTM to deliver a service. Later the municipality changed their tune and denied that there was a tender out. They then said that a meeting was held with all the private water tanker operators known as the Group of Private Water Tankers during which it was agreed that permits would be issued to a select few operators, their registration numbers would be listed on a database and they would be permitted to draw water from a designated hydrant in Kudu Street only. They would also be charged R16 per kilolitre.

This never happened because it was never enforced and not once was there an employee stationed at any hydrants to monitor the trucks, the permits or the amount of water drawn. What this managed to do though, is open up the entire system to abuse by hundreds of opportunists who soon pounced on the easy money to be made from selling water to the impoverished.

Water tankers numbering between 20 and 30 per day, draw water from any hydrant they can access from the side of the road. The hydrants are often damaged causing thousands of litres of potable water to spill into the streets. The water tankers target a specific hydrant until such time as they are either chased away by neighbourhood watch groups, or the municipality installs a locking mechanism on the hydrant.

At which point they simply find another hydrant to loot.

What has the DA done?

The Democratic Alliance in Tzaneen have laid charges of theft against the operators of water tankers who have been tapping the fire hydrants in Aquapark dry.

DA Caucus leader, Rene Pohl, with the assistance of a resident in John Smith Street, counted a total of 21 trucks drawing water from a hydrant in this neighbourhood on Saturday afternoon, the 25th of February.

Pohl followed one of the water tankers and pulled up next to the driver as he stopped for a load at the hydrant situated at 1 John Smith Street. She approached the driver and demanded to see a permit whilst she contacted the police.

“It is a very well-orchestrated operation in Aquaprak,” Pohl stated. “There are lookouts stationed on the roof tops of houses near the hydrant who are paid a loaf of bread by the drivers of the tankers. These guys then warn the drivers when the coast is clear and they can fill up their tankers.”

Pohl said that the moment she started following one of the tankers she could hear a loud whistle all the way down the street between the various lookouts to warn the driver.

“After I laid the charges I contacted the GTM’s director in charge of the water and infrastructure and she immediately sent out a team to the site who placed a large locking mechanism onto the hydrant whilst the water tankers were still at the scene.”

An emergency meeting was immediately scheduled for the following morning, Monday, the 27th of February, in the council chambers to discuss a way forward in dealing with the illegal water tankers.

Yesterday afternoon, Thursday the 2nd of March, the scene repeated itself at the very same fire hydrant in John Smith Street. A woman living in this neighbourhood walked outside and filmed herself on her cellphone attempting to chase the drivers away. One of the truck drivers allegedly attempted to run her over during a brief altercation.

Pohl again rushed to the scene and again laid charges of theft with the Tzaneen police. It is not certain how these truckers managed to remove the special locking mechanism in order to draw the water, but it is clear that they have found a way to circumvent the system.

The GTM’s Licensing Head, André Liversage arrived on scene accompanied by Tzaneen police to check for permits. One of the water tankers was impounded.

What the GTM said

We sent an inquiry to the GTM to find out what their plan is regarding the water tankers. In their response the municipality said that they were concerned about the illegal water tankers and their operations and that they would be working on a solution to the problem.

“We are gravely concerned about the conduct of private water tanker operators using fire hydrants as water sources. Although we acknowledge the water crisis faced by our communities especially in the rural communities, we cannot condone the conduct of the operators. We have scheduled a high-level internal meeting to work on a sustainable solution to this problem. This meeting will take place today, Friday, 3rd of March. The outcomes of this meeting will inform our approach towards addressing this issue.”

We issued a media inquiry to both the DA ward councillors Rene Pohl (Ward 14) and Chrizelle Dreyer (Ward 15) where the act of illegal water drawing from hydrants is most rampant. At the time of going to print we had not received a response, but both have promised to respond timeously for our next edition.