The Makhado Municipality was advised by the Soutpansberg Rate Payers Association not to look for someone to blame for the town’s water debacle but to appoint people with the required expertise.

"The sampler and the way the samples were taken by the SRPA were targeted and then political cards were played by attacking the University of Venda, stating that Univen does not have the ability to perform these tests," states the SRPA in a media statement on December 3.

Mr Herman Smith, chairman of the SRPA, said that the facts are that the results were positive for total coliform- and e.coli bacteria, indicators that are used worldwide for faecal pollution in water.

"Further tests were contemplated to be tested by reputable laboratories, Univen included, because these preliminary results indicated health risks such as gastroenteritis, dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever and salmonellosis. Apparently, the SRPA was accused of trying to bring the municipality into disrepute. We are convinced that the test results would have been the same, no matter which laboratory was chosen to do the tests," reads the statement.

The SRPA said that municipal manager, Ms Faith Muthambi, claimed that four laboratories are testing the water and DWAF does tests on a daily basis.

"If this is true, we applaud the municipality for taking quick action and we believe that copies will be made available to the SRPA. The SRPA received only four test results from the municipality and a sample taken at Bergh Street on August 27, which was positive for total coliform bacteria, with a count of 579/100m," states the SRPA. According to a publication Quality of Domestic Water Supplies, by the Water Research Commission, a count in the above range is classified as "poor" and the guideline reads "clinical infections common, even with once-off consumption".

According to the SRPA, the biggest problem facing the Municipality is that continuous professional treatment and testing of the water require trained people with a high level of expertise.

"People with these requirements are not available within the staff component of the Vhembe- or Makhado Municipalities. Our advice to the municipality is to stop playing politics, jostling for positions and endangering the lives of people and to appoint people with the required qualifications immediately. That is the only way that problems will be solved and it will send a message to the public that the municipality really cares for the lives of people residing in Louis Trichardt and surroundings," states the SRPA.

It is common knowledge that the demands that the maximum prison makes on the sewerage system are enormous. The SRPA said the municipality still has to explain what happened to the R23 million grant of 2003/4 and the R4 million paid by the builders of the prison for the upgrading of the sewerage system. The SRPA also reminded the municipality that "legislation makes provision, apart from private prosecution, also for criminal liability of any person, or institution, entrusted and failing to comply with their legal responsibilities to the community."

In conclusion, the SRPA commended the municipal manager for her quick response in appointing engineering consultants to investigate the sewerage and water purification plants, even if it is necessary to spend R13 million to get the two entities operational again.

"We have our doubts, however, if the R13 million is adequate for repairing and upgrading the total systems. But without permanent expertise in financial management and hands-on management at the two plants, the whole exercise will again go down the drain (pardon the pun)," reads the media statement.