Elias Seloma stands on the banks of the Lepelle River, a stone's throw from his village of Elandskraal in rural Limpopo, scanning the murky water for crocodiles.
The decade-long failure of the Sekhukhune district municipality to supply 7,200 households in five villages with water is what drives the 20-year-old into the shallows every day.
"It is dangerous but there is nothing we can do ... we need the water," he said, filling his buckets with roiled brown liquid.
Seloma is one of thousands of disaffected residents of the villages of Elandskraal, Morarela, Mbuzini, Dichoeung and Tsantsabela. Their plight is a David and Goliath court battle against a failing local government with millions to spend on legal resources.
The wheel of Seloma's rickety wheelbarrow etches a line into the mud as he navigates a well-worn cattle path from the water's edge, a track he knows by memory.
"I have pushed this wheelbarrow to the river for years. This is my life, every day we must go and fetch water. The crocodiles could kill me but there is no other choice," he said.
Despite two court orders, in 2015 and 2017, compelling government officials to provide a temporary supply of water while looking for a permanent solution to the problem, the taps and water tanks in the dusty villages run dry for weeks on end.
The community's main application, to force the municipality to provide them with sufficient potable water, was heard in 2017. It was resolved by consent, and the municipality was to compile monthly status reports and submit them to the court.
However, the municipality failed to adhere to the court order, and in November the villagers went back to court for a contempt order, which was granted.
In their latest application, the Pretoria high court last week ordered that acting municipal manager Mpho Mofokeng be officially joined in the case. The communities' plea to have him jailed was turned down.
The communities - represented by Wits University's Centre for Applied Legal Studies - first hauled the municipality to court in 2015 and obtained an order binding it to deliver water twice a week through its reticulation system and water tankers.
In 2017, the order was amended, directing municipal officials to fill 37 communal water tanks every weekday, along with pumping water through the reticulation system twice weekly.
According to an affidavit by attorney Ariella Scher, representing the villagers, the municipality has "consistently failed" to deliver water on time.
"I have pushed this wheelbarrow to the river for years. This is my life, every day we must go and fetch water. The crocodiles could kill me but there is no other choice,"
— Ellas Seloma
Lucy Nkuna, a resident of Morarela, told the Sunday Times this week that it had been more than a fortnight since their tanks were replenished.
"These people [the municipality] don't care about us. You never know when they are going to come and fill the tanks, so we make our own plan. I pay a man to go to the river with a donkey cart to fetch water," she said. "At Christmas there was no water. We don't have a life here."
The risk of getting water from the river is well known and underscored by a 2016 crocodile attack which student Arthur Mothemane was lucky to escape alive. While crossing the river, he was bitten by a crocodile and lost his leg at the knee.
The villagers' woes began in 2009 with the demolition of the Elandskraal water treatment plant, which made way for the Flag Boshielo water treatment works.
Since then, according to court papers, the water supply has been sporadic and unreliable owing to the regular breakdown of infrastructure, with capacity upgrades only expected to be finished next month.
In November, judge Hans Fabricius found the municipality in contempt for failing to adhere to the distribution schedule.
But despite the court's contempt order, the villages had no water delivered over December and January, prompting frustrated residents to bring an urgent application to have Mofokeng - acting in his post since September last year - held personally liable.
The court ruled he be joined in his official capacity and he escaped sanction.
The municipality said: "With limited resources and inadequate infrastructure we're doing everything in our capacity to ensure that we ultimately provide all residents with water."
The number of households in five Limpopo villages who have fought for access to water since 2015
— 7,200
Albert Manaka, a teacher at the Kalakeng Primary School in Elandskraal, said the situation was dire. "We have been four weeks without water because the trucks have not come to fill the JoJo tanks. The children can't use the toilets, and if they are thirsty they get nothing from the taps," he said.
"When it's hot I watch them flagging in front of me, but there is nothing we can do."
A woman from Dichoeung, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had given up waiting for the municipality to keep its promises, and had taken to digging a hole in her garden to collect groundwater.
"I take this water and then I boil it to kill all the insects. Then I can use it to bath and to do washing," she said.
Scher said Mofokeng's joinder was a step in the right direction. "We wish to share our frustration that this has been before the courts for five years. The communities have yet to see their legal victories materialise into a consistent water supply.
"We will assist them in holding government to account in order to avoid a situation wherein court orders can be ignored."
The municipality's response: 'We are doing everything in our capacity to help'
Moloko Moloto, communications manager for the Sekhukhune district municipality, said that they had always held that acting municipal manager, Mpho Mofokeng, had not been ignoring the court order to supply the five villages with water.
“We acknowledge that as a water authority, we’ve a legislative obligation to provide all residents of Sekhukhune district municipality with potable water. Even with limited financial resources and inadequate infrastructure, amid a historical backlog, we’re doing everything in our capacity to ensure that we ultimately provide all residents with water,” he said.
He said that there was no underlying conflict with the communities, and they had taken the opportunity to bring to the court’s attention their limited resources, and that the municipality had too few tankers to supply the villages according to the court order.
“A wrong impression that we’re in contempt of court is then created”.
“We accept that the little water we provide them with, isn’t enough, but if we were to channel all our water tankers to those five villages, we will inadvertently neglect other areas in the district,” Moloto added.
The number of years their court battle with the Sekhukhune district municipality has been going on
— 5
He said that the number of households in these five villages has increased threefold since the reticulation infrastructure was put in place and the system is now under “enormous pressure”.
“Admittedly, we haven’t upgraded the reticulation system in years. One of the reasons we haven’t upgraded the system is that because we’re a predominantly rural municipality, our revenue base is quite small.”
“We’re struggling to generate adequate funds from our revenue base to upgrade and maintain our existing infrastructure,” he said.
Conditional grants meant for bulk water projects and installation of reticulation projects elsewhere, he said, had been ring-fenced and could not be used to maintain existing infrastructure.
“It’s not as if someone has deliberately decided to defy the court order when it comes to these five villages in question.”
Moloto said that construction for the expansion of the water treatment plant will be completed in the next three to four months.
“The next step is to upgrade the reticulation system and completion of this phase is expected towards the end of the next financial year.”
Asked if the municipality had failed the residents of Elandskraal, Morarela, Mbuzini, Dichoeung and Tsantsabela, Moloto said: “We believe our efforts to deal with water problems in all areas of Sekhukhune district municipality require a completely new approach. Our planning has to improve markedly.
“For instance, going forward, in all reticulation projects we will do household connections and install meters. This will help eradicate illegal connections that we’re currently witnessing with the communal taps that we install in the streets.”
“Those who afford will pay and we’ll be able maintain and expand our infrastructure,” he added.
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