Imtiaz Sooliman – explains Gift of the Givers’ Makhanda decision
AI: Summary ©
The decision to pull out water was due to the need for people to meet demand for water, rather than due to a desire to burn up homes caused by the downturn in the economy. The Department of Water and Sanitation is working to fix infrastructure and implement a solution to people not being able to access water. A humanitarian organization is working to help people in Makanda, and the situation is serious and causing people to get out of work and burn up homes.
AI: Summary ©
That's Jade Leap also reporting there from Makanda
in the Eastern Cape a little bit earlier
on. Well, for more on this story, let's
join now, from Gift of the Givis, MTS
Suleiman, who's in Cape Town. Thanks so much
indeed for joining us. Welcome to the program.
I'm sure that there was a difficult decision
for you, but, why did Gift of the
Givers
feel that they needed to pull out?
Hi, Peter. Yes. Indeed,
it's it was one of the most difficult
decisions we had to make because we know
the need of water of the people. We've
seen elderly people run toward our trucks. We've
seen the different areas, how grateful they are
when we bring the water. It's not gonna
be a few months that there's no water.
It's gonna be immediate. There'll be no water
today and tomorrow and the next day in
many areas in in Makanda. So it's instant.
It's immediate. People don't have water.
And the reason why we pulled out is
because it is it is a matter of
principle.
We were promised well, this is not a
business agreement.
When we entered the town on the 12th
February,
with the municipal
municipality told us, look, we only need to
have for a few days because we're waiting
for the pump to be repaired on the
James Cleaner's dam. We said it's fine. And
that that wasn't a big issue for us.
We brought in water. We brought in our
plants. We didn't expect to get paid for
that, because this is what we do normally.
We are people. So we brought the water.
We started helping the people. And then after
a few days, when consulting the different people
in the town and visiting the different areas,
we realized this was a far bigger problem,
that within a few weeks, the town is
going to run out of water completely.
As we told the municipality,
you guys need balls. You need underground water
to pump into your dam, and you need
to supply water to different areas in Jojo
tanks.
I they told us, look. We don't have
any money, and that's why we called you.
I said, this is fine, but the cost
of this is too high. Even we can't
cover the cost. It's going to be between
23 30,000,000.
So they said, look, we are going to
declare they asked the government to declare the
area a disaster.
We will then get emergency funding,
and we will pay you with that funding
to do the exact things that we have
to do. You say it's expensive.
The only thing is we don't know if
it will be declared a disaster.
We don't know how much funding we'll get,
and we don't know when we will get
it. We said that's fine. You know, in
in in we will carry on doing what
we can.
They they they approached the government. It was
declared a disaster. It was promulgated in the
gazette, and then the municipality had a meeting
where it was unanimously unanimously,
tabled that the moment the money comes, they
will pay us.
While this was happening, suddenly,
we find the Department of Water and Sanitation
starting to engage us. And we couldn't understand
why that was taking place.
Because they made a statement to say that
once they give money to the municipality,
they step back and the municipality chooses whom
it wants. So we couldn't understand why they
were engaging us. And
they engaged us on several occasions. And finally
and they said, look. The money is coming.
The money is coming. We're gonna put the
money into municipality's account. And every time we
check to the municipality,
they said they don't have the money. The
municipality calls us and asks, did you get
the money? We said, no, but the money
is coming to you, and then you will
pay us. So that to and fro carried
on. And eventually, 2 days ago, the Department
of Water and Sanitation who say they don't
interfere, who say the municipality makes their own
decision, they called us, and in the meeting
told us 10,000,000 is becoming available. And they've
been putting public statements to say they give
22,000,000 to the municipality. So how it becomes
10,000,000, I don't know. And they said 10,000,000
is not available, but it will not be
paid to you.
It will be paid to 3 different companies
because the money has to go to companies
in Grant Town
for work that we did. They didn't say
that, but it was obvious. 1,200,000 to a
consultancy company.
We did the consultation work. We did the
report. We presented it to the municipality.
Another company, 1,800,000
to connect the balls to the to the
water to the treatment plant, the electrical connections,
which we are going to do. But these
are our balls. It doesn't belong to anybody
else. It belongs to us. We drilled, and
we paid for it. And thirdly, the best
of it all, paying 7,000,000 to another company
for balls, and we drill the balls. So
as a matter of principle,
we cannot expect taxpayers' money
being paid to people who've done nothing for
the town, and we've done all the work.
So as a matter of principle, we said,
okay. Somebody else got the money, then they
can fix the town, and we will leave.
So these boreholes,
they belong to you still.
Can they access them?
Yes. They can access them, but the pumps
are not on. We haven't put the pumps
on because there was not enough money to
pay for all that. It's not only about
putting the pumps on. It needs special PVC
piping to be put in the bowl. Otherwise,
it'll collapse, and it'll be a waste of
money. So and also without the filtration systems,
which we design ourselves, it's our own intellectual
property rights. Nobody has those filtration systems in
South Africa. It's our own design, our own
innovation.
Without that, they can't use the water. They
need those systems, and those things cost 6
to 700,000 in each. So from what I'm
hearing, the
problem in this story is the Department of
Water and Sanitation.
The municipality
itself had an a gentleman's agreement with you
that you would be compensated for work done,
and it seems that the Department of Water
and Sanitation
have taken another route.
That's exactly the story. We have a excellent
relationship with the municipality.
They were honest with us from the first
day. They said, look. We have no money.
You're coming India. You need to understand. I
said, look. We don't ask for money when
we do these things. We're a charity organization.
But the work that has to be done
here to save the town to see it's
like the university was worried. They said students
have started falling out. The the enrollment had
dropped in the university, and the town is
dependent on the university.
Jobs are going to be lost. The economy
is going to affect it. Tourists wouldn't come.
The stand up and arts festival is in
trouble in June if the thing is not
sorted out before then. All these things we
considered. And when there's so much unemployment in
the country, you didn't want the whole university
town to collapse. So we said we'll start
on our own. And they said, look. We
don't know if we'll get the money, and
we don't know how much we'll get, and
we don't know when we'll get it. But
all that was honest. We had no problem
with all that. But when the Department of
Water and Sanitation comes and says we've got
10,000,000, but we're not giving to you, then
that's a major problem.
So,
again, if I follow the thread of your
story, we've got 3 companies that are gonna
be paid for work that they haven't done.
That's fraud.
That's that's why the public is up in
arms. And and but also okay. Forget the
fraud part. The reality is, how are they
gonna get water tomorrow?
Right. Right. There is no system of giving
the people water tomorrow. They are gonna be
in a serious crisis.
So what needs to happen for you to
be able to go back, put in the,
pumps,
and get the operation running again?
Before we get to the pumps part, for
the last 3 to 4 weeks, we're basically,
in inverted commas, wasting time because we've only
been delivering water in tankers when you can
do something far more efficient than that. If
we had connected the pumps, if the money
had come, we could have connected the pumps,
We would have pumped water into the dam.
4,000,000 liters of water would be pushed from
the dam into the reservoirs. We wouldn't have
to send tankers there. People will get the
water in their taps. We would have put
in more filtration systems in the school where
we can draw 1,200,000 liters of water, purify
that water through our filtration systems, and only
use tankers in those areas while the big
dam gets fixed. And after 2 few weeks,
when the big dam is fixed, there's no
need for us to put water tankers in
that area because people on one side of
the town will get the water. So we're
a stopgap measure while they're fixing the infrastructure
in the town. To answer your question, if
they say, yes, the money is available, we'll
go back tonight
because we know that people are in serious
trouble. We're bringing more water tankers
whilst we're drilling the earthwork to put the
pipes in, to put the water into the
dams. We have to put concrete slabs all
over the city to to to hold the
Jojo tanks because they're weighty, and then we
have to bring in more water tankers to
pump water from our own bowls, to our
own filtration systems, to put into those into
those Jojo tanks so people don't have to
walk long distances, don't have to run after
a truck, don't have to come after work
and fire. They've missed a truck so they
can get water at any time.
Does the,
minister of water and sanitation,
department know about this issue? Have you engaged
with minister?
Well, we haven't engaged him directly because we
were talking to the people from the Department
of Water and Sanitation, and this happened 2
days ago. And, obviously,
some way along the line, they they know
the processes they gotta follow. They they know
the system that they followed. So for them
to take a decision, not to pass, obviously,
everybody in the department must be knowing about
that. In any case, when this thing hit
the news today, we got a call from
the president's office. We got a call from
the minister of, trade industry not trade industry,
Ibrahim Patel.
His office called us to say they're looking
to the matter. The president's office said they're
looking to the matter.
Called me this afternoon to say they're looking
to the matter. He's calling the minister of
water directly.
Ibrahim Patel's office said they're calling the water
and minister of water directly.
And just a little while ago, we got
a call from somebody from the Department of
Water and Sanitation saying that the director general
wants to discuss the matter, and they want
to have a meeting with the municipality
and the role plays. We said it's the
same thing all over again. We've been doing
this for 13 weeks. We've spent hundreds of
hours in meetings. It's a simple solution. Have
you guys got the money, or don't you
have the money? If you don't have the
money, tell us it's fine. If you have
the money, you need to pay for us
to finish your job. There's no long discussion
required. You declared this an emergency, and you're
taking 13 weeks to solve a problem, which
is an emergency. What is your definition of
an emergency?
And, of course, the cost of not fixing
this is far greater than the funds that
are being
withheld.
Yes. Most certainly. But more than that, the
funds being withheld the people are paying the
price Yeah. To go under the the best
thing in all this,
on Freedom Day, when the president came to
speak in, the the the municipality told us,
please, we don't have water for the town.
You know that they told us, and we
don't have water for all the guests coming
from all over from all Eastern Cape. We
prepared 126,000
liters of water
with bottled water. We brought in water the
water tankers.
And whilst the president was speaking,
we got a call from the Department of
Water and Sanitation to say, can you please
move your trucks? It is an embarrassment.
There is no water crisis in Makanda.
Wow. 5 minutes later in the speech,
the police president, sir, says
there's no freedom for the people of South
Africa and no freedom for Makanda if there's
no water in Makanda.
Alright. And, sir, Sineman, thanks very much indeed,
for talking to us today. Let's hope this
matter gets resolved,
very quickly,
because it is, as you've described, an emergency
that needs to be dealt with. Thank you
so much indeed for your time.
It's a pleasure. Alright. So that was said.
And dear Suleiman from Gift of the Givers,
the humanitarian organization,
desperately trying to help the people of Makanda
with the,
critical water shortage and,
doing work there, but, wanting the department of,
water and sanitation
to do their bit to help the people
of the eastern