AfriForum obtains court order against Vhembe District Municipality

The AfriForum branch in Louis Trichardt today obtained a court order in the North Gauteng High Court against the Vhembe District Municipality and its mayor.

The Court ordered the Municipality to obey the court order within 30 days. If it doesn’t happen, AfriForum will bring an application for contempt, which will lead to the arrest of the guilty parties.

The court order entails, amongst other things, that the Municipality must repair the town’s water supply, that the borehole project be revived once again, as well as that the boreholes must be safeguarded against vandalism. The Municipality also needs to give notice of when the community will be without water and how long such a drought period will last.

The application was brought after the Municipality failed to maintain and safeguard Louis Trichardt’s borehole infrastructure. The local community has constantly been plagued by water supply problems over the last couple of years.

“Access to water is a basic constitutional right and tax payers are paying for services that they are not receiving. It is unacceptable and we are glad that the Court also interpreted it that way. The fact that the Municipality did not even turn up at Court to contest the application is a further indication that they do not care about the community,” says Chris Boshoff, AfriForum’s Regional Coordinator for Limpopo.

“Desperate residents of Louis Trichardt are placing all of their hope on this court case so that the water supply to the town can be fully restored. The District Municipality had many opportunities to execute a simple borehole plan that would have stopped the water crisis, but it did not happen. We are hoping that the verdict will lead to officials actually starting to do their work,” says Wally Schultz, Chairperson of AfriForum’s Louis Trichardt branch.

Become involved at your local AfriForum branch: SMS “Tak” to 45340 (R1).