Rhodes University suspends lectures as Makhanda despairs over prolonged water outage caused by sabotage

1 Sep 2024

Makhanda has all but shut down since Friday as a week-long water outage, alleged to have been caused by sabotage owing to a stand-off over overtime payments, brought the university town to its knees.

Rhodes University temporarily suspended its academic programme on Friday, 30 August 2024, as Makhanda endured a weeklong water outage, which still has no end date in sight.

It is understood that the town’s water system was sabotaged as part of an illegal strike.

About 97,000 people living in the Makana Local Municipality have borne the brunt of water problems for years.

The provincial government has for years been “implementing” some kind of financial rescue plan at the municipality, but there has been very little success.

The implementation of a successful financial plan was also part of a “settlement” agreed to after citizens won a significant case in the Makhanda High Court when the judge ordered that the municipal council be dissolved for its unconstitutional failure to provide services.

Read more: Judge to oversee the financial recovery of ‘failed’ Makana Municipality

Apart from the water outage the town has also been hit by electricity outages.

Read more: Access to water in Makana: How an incapable state destroys service delivery

The extended water outage comes as the Auditor-General published shock findings on the municipality’s finances. The municipality once again received a disclaimer on its financial reports. The local government has run up R779.3-million in unauthorised expenditure.

Read more: R400m later, Makhanda is still facing a catastrophic water crisis

“The campus has been without municipal water since Friday, 23 August 2024, and the university has had to provide water via tankers to kitchens, residences, academic buildings, and offices,” reads a university statement, which was released on Friday.

“Despite all these efforts, individual hygiene, health and study conditions are affected and are increasingly at risk. Access to water and sanitation is an internationally recognised human right linked to an acceptable standard of living.”

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela expressed serious concern over the outages in Makhanda and their negative impact on students, staff, visitors and the academic programme.

“Reports connect the current crisis to potential sabotage to support industrial action in the municipality. Water availability in Makhanda is not the cause of the problem. This justifies firm leadership intervention and urgent dispute resolution between the municipality and its employees.

“The situation will significantly influence the university’s future action as the institution strives to mitigate risk emanating from such unpredictable actions while strengthening self-sufficiency. The university is the biggest employer and ratepayer in the town,” the statement continues.

In the interim, the university has procured additional capacity to distribute water on and off campus to meet stakeholders’ immediate needs, with these measures expected to come into operation immediately.

“The situation in Makhanda has begun to reflect an apparent disregard for our students and staff’s dignity, wellbeing, and rights. The university has escalated this matter to the Office of the Provincial Premier, Mr Oscar Mabuyane,” the statement reads. Mabuyane is in China at the moment.

The university has called on all involved parties to consider the long-term consequences of their actions on the viability of Makhanda as a whole. “It is unacceptable that the whole community and institutions suffer due to the actions – or inaction – of a few that undermine human rights and dignity,” the statement continues.

Apart from the university, the town has a large prison, is home to the province’s maximum security psychiatric hospital and is the seat of the high court.

Deep concerns

WaterCAN, the water accountability arm of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, also expressed its deep concern over the water situation in Makhanda.

“These disruptions have caused significant inconvenience and hardship for residents, impacting daily life and essential services,” said Dr Ferrial Adam, executive manager of WaterCAN.

“One of the key challenges was the corruption and mismanagement related to the R400-million for the upgrade of the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works in Makhanda that was lost or stolen.

“The recent outages have exacerbated the challenges faced by a very patient community, particularly in terms of health and sanitation. We have said this over and over, the only time things will get better is when people face the music. When we charge municipal managers, then we will see things change,” Adam said.

“WaterCAN demands that municipalities publish clear maintenance plans, provide open and transparent information on water tanker companies (including the full costs to the municipality), charge responsible officials for negligence and pollution, and provide regular information on the quality of the water we are drinking.

“Access to clean water is a fundamental human right, and it is imperative that we work together to ensure that all residents have reliable access to this essential resource,” she said.

In an unprecedented step the headmasters of the town’s three private schools – St Andrew’s College and Prep, Kingswood College and the Dioscesan School for Girls (DSG) – issued a public letter saying they are in full support of Rhodes University, adding that it is time to become “more assertive” with the municipality.

Signed by Tom Hamilton (from St. Andrew’s), Jannie de Villiers (DSG), Jane Ritchie (DSG Junior), Jakes Fredericks (St Andrew’s Prep) and Leon Grove (Kingswood), the letter said the schools have always avoided an adversarial approach to the municipality but realise that the time has come to be more assertive.

“While we will continue and offer our active assistance in improving future outcomes for our town and its people, it is evidence that we will need to be more assertive in our stance. The manner in which our town is run has a direct impact on its educational institutions and the students/pupils, staff and parents of these institutions. The dignity, wellbeing, and rights of all the town’s citizens and those who work, study or visit here must be given priority,” they said.

The Democratic Alliance’s Jane Cowley said the “broken Makana Municipality is on the brink of financial collapse, and the news that one of its biggest economic drivers, Rhodes University in Makhanda, has had to suspend classes due to an extended water outage highlights the reality of a complete failure”.

“The DA has been informed that the cause of the water outage is the current deadlock between the municipality and its employees regarding the non-payment of overtime.

“It is clear that the municipal manager does not have the backbone to deal with Makana’s problems. If he can’t get the municipality’s administration back on track, he is part of the problem and needs to go.

“I will write to the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Oscar Mabuyane, calling on him to intervene in the deadlock between the two parties under Section 154 of the Constitution,” she said.

Under Section 154, the provincial government, by legislative and other measures, must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their power and to perform their function.

The municipality only responded to the water outage for the first time on Saturday, when they told residents to close their taps.

Its response came a day after it received a lawyers’ letter from the Makana Residents’ Association, the Makana Unity League and the Makana Business and Residents’ Association.

“The municipality’s failure to provide water to Makhanda, as aforementioned, is not only an infliction on the dignity of residents of Makhanda, but it also creates a significant health and safety risk, which in turn negatively affects the smooth running of the various businesses and institutions in town. We note that Rhodes University will temporarily suspend part of its academic programme as a direct result of the disruptions and the supply of water to its staff and students,” the letter reads, The letter was signed by Mike van der Veen, a director of legal firm Rushmere Noach.

“The municipality is accordingly requested to take urgent steps to address the self-sabotage presently taking place and to ensure that the water supply to Makhanda be restored by close of business today [Friday], failing which an urgent application will be launched against the municipality.”

The letter continues that the associations will approach the court to ask for an order that municipal officials do their work and make sure the town has water.

In its response, the municipality said: “Several days of outages and backlog has destabilised the water supply system. Even though reservoirs have been 70 to 90% full this morning it took only three hours to hit the floor.

“Residents and businesses all over are filling their tanks and recharging their on-site systems including Rhodes University. We have now closed some reservoirs to replenish them and build up pressures. It’s a very difficult situation and we are appealing to residents and businesses to consider not to fill their tanks to full capacity but gradually in order to allow water to reach as many areas until the system [reaches] a certain level of stability. If residents and businesses may assist in our request we trust the system can stabilise soon.

“About 98% of Rhodes university system is now recharged and receiving water,” the municipality said. DM

Categories:

Maverick Citizen

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

Maverick Citizen

Deep concerns