It is alleged that the water crisis is a result of the municipality's debt to the Sedibeng Water utility. This comes after the inner workings of the municipality’s fire department came under scrutiny as a private company came to the rescue on Sunday afternoon as an Eskom transformer located between Welkom and Virginia was hit by lightning yesterday. This led to the transformer erupting in flames. OFM News’ Pulane Choane reports that the spokesperson at the municipality, Kgojane Matutle, told OFM News that contrary to ongoing reports, the private company was, in fact, outsourced by the municipality.

Transcript: “It is untrue that our municipal fire vehicle arrived at the scene without water. About 3000 litres of water were exhausted in efforts to fight the fire. Following that, we had to use a nearby fire hydrant to refill and while we were refilling, we then called on a private company to assist… We initiated the process because what normally happens is that when we have such instances where we realize that the fire was too strong, we call for back up. The back up, in this instance, was a private company,” Matutle said.

 While Matutle also admitted that the municipality has millions of Rands in outstanding debt to the Sedibeng Water board, he said the municipality is currently adhering to its payment plans and refuted allegations that there are water shortages in Welkom, where the municipality is seated, as well as the surrounding towns such as Virginia and Allanridge, which it serves.

Meanwhile, OFM News earlier reported that Eskom’s spokesperson in the Free State, Stefanie Jansen van Rensburg, said that the transformer, which was at the Anglo Dankbaarheid Substation, was completely destroyed by the fire and an adjacent transformer was damaged in the incident. Jansen van Rensburg says only the mines in the area were affected by the damage. The transformer is believed to have had about 15 000 litres of transformer oil.

OFM News