A North West High Court judgment that gives Kgetlengrivier Concerned Citizens control of the water and sewage works, should be a message to political parties to carefully consider just how dismal service delivery must be for this situation to have emerged, writes Karen Heese and Kevin Allan.
Kgetlengrivier is a dysfunctional municipality by any measure - one of many under administration in the North West, but a particularly important one after the North West High Court overturned an attempt by the municipality to halt a ratepayers' court-mandated right to take over the provision of water and sanitation earlier this month.
This was after the Koster and Swartruggen's ratepayers' association, Kgetlengrivier Concerned Citizens, was accompanied by the sheriff of the court to enable it to take over the running of the new, but derelict, R144 million water and waste water works in Kgetlengrivier last month.
