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The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr David Mahlobo (in the middle), joined by Vhembe District Municipality representative Cllr Thina Mbedzi (on the left) and Thovhele Gole Mphaphuli (on the right) photographed after the meeting inThohoyandou on Tuesday.

Households affected by Nandoni may receive money before year-end

 

More than 1 400 households from areas affected by the construction of the Nandoni Dam may receive compensation before the end of the year.

On Tuesday, the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr David Mahlobo, visited the area to meet with representatives of the Nandoni Complaints Resolution Committee (NCRC), the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) and Thovhele Gole Mphaphuli. Residents from 16 villages, such Mulenzhe, Budeli, Tshiulungoma and Dididi, were affected when construction work started at the dam some 20 years ago.

Tuesday’s meeting was held at the Vhembe Department of Water and Sanitation’s Thohoyandou auditorium. The chairperson of the NCRC, Mr Solomon Baloyi, was in good spirits when speaking to Limpopo Mirror shortly after the meeting. He was confident that the process to compensate the families is now on track. He mentioned that the process thus far has been long and tedious, but it looks as if things are eventually happening.

According to Baloyi, the Deputy Minister promised them that 1 400 affected households will start being paid their monies from mid-November to the end of December. Baloyi assured the representatives that the department had budgeted for such compensation.

“Our only worrying factor now is the help desk, comprising team members from the Department of Water and Sanitation, as they do not cooperate well with us when we give them information. We are happy that some houses which started cracking are being rebuilt and refurbished, and construction is expected to be completed by June 2021,” said Baloyi.

According to Deputy Minister Mahlobo, the process to compensate households was delayed due to factors such as incorrect information on ID documents. The database of beneficiaries was also incomplete.

Mahlobo said that his department had also set aside some grant funding to be directed to the Vhembe District Municipality, so that rural communities near the dam that still complain of not having access to water would get the necessary infrastructure to channel water to these areas. He said the VDM would soon appoint a contractor to lay the pipes to channel water to these areas.

 

 

Date:22 October 2020

By: Silas Nduvheni

Read: 1597

 

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