Masisi’s sister, Co shut water supply again

Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday September 8, 2025 15:36

Within a week after Lobatse High Court Justice, Dr Ookeditse Maphakwane issued an order restraining Tianyuan Construction and G & M Building Joint Venture (JV) from locking access to the chambers to the water tanks and resorting to self-help with respect to the water supply to Ditlharapa, Molete and Mokatako, and any other chamber which is in the possession, custody and use of Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) herein and used for purposes of water supply to any village including the villages of Rakhuna, Matsau, Ramatlabama, Makokwe, Papatlo, Matasalalo, Borobadilepe, Hebron, Legagane Phihetswane and Marojane, the JV has gone ahead and locked up the Phitshane- Molopo pump station.

The two parties are locked in a payment dispute following the completion of the Goodhope District water supply Scheme 2.2. awarded to the JV at P549.6 million.

Addressing residents of Mokatako recently, WUC chief executive officer (CEO) Gaselemogwe Senai said the project was completed despite that they find themselves embattled with issues, which he stated are a result of things not go accordingly.

“When things go wrong, it is the responsibility of ourselves and those we have contracted to deliver the project. Water has arrived, as it has been said, but as you have seen, that water tank is not leaking, but porous, very badly. And it is not the only one as many others are like that. We have even decided not to fill some of them to capacity as they are really bad,” he said.

Senai said in October 2024, they were in Phitshane- Molopo with the then president Mokgweetsi Masisi delivering the project, stating that it was completed.

“However, people from Leporung, all the way to Sekhutlane, are still struggling with water as the pump station is not working efficiently. We passed by the pump station yesterday and we found it locked. The contractor I am talking about is the same one who just recently locked up chambers, disturbing us from distributing water. We took the matter to court and we got a rule nisi. The police then helped us unlock the chambers. On the 25th August, the order was confirmed, and they were ordered to return the control of chambers to us. As I speak to you, we could not enter the pump station as it has been locked,’ he said.

Senai said he could not say much on the matter as there were contractual issues that he said they were still trying to find a way to deal with the matter.

He said he could not recall the last time the contractor was on site. “He should be on site to deal with these leaking tanks and the pipeline as per our agreement and the law. But I cannot say for sure what could be happening. We are currently assessing our powers to see what we can do to normalise the situation as soon as we can,” he said.

Senai said there were a lot of issues raised by councillors about the water situation in the area. He said one of the issues was that the contractor had complained that they were not paid accordingly. He said, despite that, the law had to be followed and they had to go for arbitration, which could not be concluded.

“The Minister for Water and Human Settlements (Onneetse Ramogapi) called us and the contractor to try to broker peace. However, it seems we did not conclude the talks right. Otherwise, the contractor would be on site making repairs,” he said.

Senai said they had also known that while they were expanding the water supply from the North South Carrier, they would also need to fix pipes in the villages, as they were very old and would not be able to support the pressure of water coming through. He said their intention is now to update pipes and expand them. He said in the meantime, they would extend some pipes and increase prepaid standpipes for residents in places like Mokatako. He said the prepaid standpipes would be used to cut on wastage as some residents water their livestock through the standpipes.

He said that they intend at least by end of the year, to have resolved the situation of the leaking pipes and tanks.