The local primary and high school decided to lock out the community that has been dependent on the schools for water all because even when the school was drawing water from this project before sinking own boreholes, the community reneged from paying the monthly contributions and the schools ended up footing the bill for the entire surrounding  communities.

Dumsane says the other setback was that there were monthly reports to update the community on the status of the water project save for convention for meetings to issue a barrage of complaints and break downs. But problem is that there is still no fully fledged structure to look after the projects and Dlamini is worried that things could degenerate but is hopeful that with the ESAFF assistance they would know how to request the assistance of government and make sure these projects remain sustainable well into the future. People are extremely poor in Hlutse and mothers who keep the fires burning survive by selling fruits, vegetables or fat cakes to school children who themselves are impoverished.

There are no other sources of income unlike in other areas where cannabis is illegally grown and communities are able to withstand the pangs of hunger by supplementing whatever incomes that eke. Delay in inputs has resulted in zero harvest last year with silos completed empty this is  because by the time government tractors arrived moisture had long evaporated form the ground and the ploughing season already over, courtesy of the Ministry Of Agriculture.

STORY BY: ACKEL ZWANE

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