Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Qwaqwa

latest news & developments
Unsafe supply: Qwa Qwa residents use river water to do their laundry. They also collect water from the river for their homes. Photo Delwyn Verasamy
EASTERN CAPE

No freedom without water

Across South Africa, communities are marking Freedom Day under the weight of an escalating water crisis, where unreliable supply, contamination and ageing infrastructure continue…

  • Sheree Bega
8 min read
On the job: Maluti-a-Phofung municipal workers attending to electricity connections in the area. Photo: Maluti-a-Phofung Communications
CORRUPTION

Thugs cut power, demand villagers pay

Criminals are allegedly extorting residents when the FS municipality fails to cough up for work they submitted claims for but that was never done

  • Lunga Mzangwe
3 min read
The hole nine yards: Pothholed roads and a fallen electric pole, which took more than a month to be repaired. (Lunga Mzangwe/M&G)
ACM

No services, no jobs, as businesses flee Free State municipality

Wrangling in the ANC, incompetence and corruption have brought the council close to collapse

  • Lunga Mzangwe
10 min read
Women have fewer rights to access land for homesteads and businesses in rural South Africa than men. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
BANTUSTAN

Democratise land rights in communal areas to unlock the rural economy

The former homelands and bantustans could offer opportunities to pursue activities that would curb poverty and unemployment

  • Bulelwa Mabasa
8 min read
Cascading dam capture: In areas where the taps have run dry, such as QwaQwa, people spend hours collecting water transported there by trucks. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
CALL CENTRE

Free state municipality gets a paint job instead of water services

Maluti-A-Phofung council report wants former municipal manager to pay back the money he spent on communications company that was meant to establish a call centre for the QwaQwa…

  • Athandiwe Saba
3 min read
Not a drop to drink: Residents in QwaQwa have not had water in their taps since October. Many have to walk long distances and stand in queues to purchase water from a water truck — if they can afford it. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
CORRUPTION

Greed has an insatiable thirst

The water department says even water tankers are not immune to the selfish acts of Covidpreneurs

  • Andile Tshona
4 min read
It may be that the most important lesson this pandemic has to teach us is that we don’t control nearly as many things as we like to think we do.
CHRISTMAS

Quiet contemplation this Easter

From church services over WhatsApp to eating with family and listening to chilled music over Instagram, South Africa is going to have a very different long weekend, grounded in…

  • Mail Guardian Online Reporter
8 min read
President Cyril Ramphosa. (David Harrison)
ANDRE DE RUYTER

In his Sona speech, Ramaphosa must tread the line between promises and reality

South Africa has a slew of service-delivery problems, most notably in the water and electricity sectors. The time for promises is over: what the country needs is action

  • Bongekile Macupe
6 min read
Mail & Gaurdian
AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS WOMEN

Editorial: Promises are on tap, but not water

Promises of hope and a better tomorrow await South Africa. Yet they continue to come to naught

  • Editorial
3 min read
Not a drop to drink: Residents in QwaQwa have not had water in their taps since October. Many have to walk long distances and stand in queues to purchase water from a water truck — if they can afford it. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
AUDITOR GENERAL

Impossible choices in QwaQwa: What it takes to get water

A broken municipality and a four-year crisis forces residents to consider desperate choices, such as trading sex for water

  • Bongekile Macupe
7 min read
(John McCann/M&G)
CONSTITUTION

The Makhanda disaster cannot be ignored

The municipality turned a deaf ear to residents’ cries — until they united and took it to court

  • Eusebius McKaiser
7 min read