Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Doctorate for Ngwathe’s Head of Water and Sanitation, but still no safe water for residents

Soundbite: Alta Pretorius (English)

Soundbite: Alta Pretorius (Afrikaans)

The embattled Ngwathe Local Municipality’s Head of Water and Sanitation, Mokete Phele, boasts with a doctorate in Chemistry since yesterday, but according to AfriForum, in the eight years since he was appointed to this position, he has still not been able to bring about any improvement in the provision of safe drinking water for residents. The civil rights organisation maintains that the water supply has actually deteriorated since Phele’s appointment.

AfriForum is now calling for transparency regarding the cost of Phele’s postgraduate studies and is demanding that, if Ngwathe bore the cost thereof, Phele must repay the full cost of his studies to the municipality.

Phele, who obtained his degree from the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), was congratulated on the municipality’s Facebook page for his achievement yesterday with the words: “Ngwathe Local Municipality at work!” AfriForum views this praise, which comes amid years of poor performance, particularly in water supply, as a betrayal of its residents.

The social media post also proudly announces that the municipality’s number of doctoral degree holders is growing under the leadership of Ngwathe’s Municipal Manager, Dr Futhuli Mothamaha.

The VUT graduation booklet includes an abstract of Phele’s research. This abstract states: “Water is regarded as the most vital of natural resources for the sustainability of life, yet freshwater systems are directly threatened by pollution.”

Despite this statement, Ngwathe is suffering from the very crisis of pollution under Phele’s leadership.

According to Alta Pretorius, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Mooi River, it is clear that the gap between theory and practice is now such that even so-called water experts cannot solve the crisis within their ranks. “In February 2023, Phele promised that if residents in Ngwathe do not have access to water within six months, he will resign from his position. It is already a year and a half later, and residents still have to be content with dry taps or contaminated water. Extensive education is useless if it is not grounded in practice – and with almost a decade of failures, it appears that Phele’s degree is not worth the paper it is printed on,” Pretorius said.