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The Chris Hani District Municipality said the sabotaging of water infrastructure has severely affected the water supply to Cofinvaba and about 40 surrounding villages.
In a statement on Friday, the District Municipality said unplanned water outages that had been affecting these areas were initially attributed to ailing infrastructure.
“The District Municipality has been working on establishing the cause and effecting repairs at the Tsojana Bulk pipeline which supplies water to the area,” said spokesperson, Bulelwa Ganyaza.
However, she said it was discovered on Friday “that the frequent bursts are, in fact, a result of sabotage as the infrastructure is intentionally tempered with, affecting about 40 villages including the town.”
Ganyaza said the vandalism has led to a large volume of water to leak, recurring water outages in the area and the situation will remain until repairs are complete.
“The District Municipality has been gravely concerned about the abnormal rate of pipe bursts and intermittent water interruptions in the area,” she said, adding that the was evidence pointing to vandalism.
A case has been opened with the South African Police Services and customers are encouraged to report pipe bursts and any form of theft and vandalism of water infrastructure to the Customer Care Call Centre on 0800 100 100.
