WATERVAL – A war has erupted between the Makhado Municipality and Mr MP Malumbete, owner of Erf 2009 at Waterval. It is reported that officials from the municipality had entered and drilled a borehole on his stand, without notifying him.

According to Mr Malumbete, the municipality drilled a borehole on his stand, next to the new house that he is building. "I became aware of this issue after everyone in the township was commending me that I am serious with my stand, as I am also drilling a borehole, because the area is experiencing a water shortage," he said.

He said that as a lawful stand owner, he approached the municipality through the Director Technical Services, Mr Mapholi, and the team that was working, to stop with the procedure of making connections. The matter reached boiling point when the municipal workers returned to connect the borehole pipes on July 22, and when Mr Malumbete saw, them he chased them away.

According to Mr Malumbete's lawyer, Nandu Malumbete, Section 138 of the Local Government Ordinance 17 of 1939 states that the municipality should have notified his clients and if they had any objections, these could be raised in terms of this act. "My client's objections are that the borehole is next to his house and he was never notified thereof," he said.

When approached for comment, the Director Technical Services said that the Municipality had done its best to inform Malumbete about the borehole that had to be drilled on his stand.

"We appointed a diviner to look for a source or vein and it was unfortunate that one of those places happened to be at Mr Malumbete's stand and in that regard, we decided to proceed with the drilling of the borehole in the interests of members of the community, who have been living without water for a period of more than ten years" he said.

He strongly condemns the claim by Mr Malumbete that he is the owner of the land. "You can only own a paper, not a land," he said. When asked if he had received letters of objections from Mr Malumbete's attorneys, he agreed that a letter had been received, but declined to comment, as the matter is being handled by the Secretariat Director, who serves as Legal advisor of the Municipality. The Council has already approved the fact that the connections must take place.

"We understand that Malumbete has constitutional rights, but here we are trying to help our people, in fact we don't want to destroy him as he is alleging, we want to serve our community" Mapholi explains. He said that the Municipality has concrete information to prove that Mr Malumbete is not the owner of the stand. "The stand belongs to one of his sisters and now what is his interest in this matter; his sister is the one who must approach us for negotiations and possible compensation, not Malumbete."