News24 | ON THE ROAD | In uMkhanyakude: Children wash, cows drink. And taps in KwaShukela remain dry

• The party has fielded izinduna and traditional leaders as councillor candidates, arguing they will curb corruption and restore accountability, while its manifesto proposes a new “traditional government sphere” for amakhosi.
• A river-water seller says fielding chiefs as councillors “will never work,” while a lifelong ANC supporter in a mud house is switching to the MK Party because “the ANC has told us too many lies.”
• More than four years after a national Section 63 intervention, a dam that could supply 70% of the district sits full while the taps stay dry.
• For more political news, follow News24’s Politics.

In the uMkhanyakude District of northern KwaZulu-Natal, the MK Party is making a calculated bet on the past to fix the future.

The party has fielded izinduna and traditional leaders as councillor candidates in the 4 November local government elections, a move its uMkhanyakude district chairperson, Sibusiso Ngema, describes as “going back to basics.”

Ngema told News24 that traditional leaders had historically played a central role in rural communities and were respected by the people they served.

He claimed:

We all grew up in communities that were led by traditional leaders. At the time, there was less crime, corruption and other problems that exist today.

“Every community knew there was a person who was a leader and who was respected by everyone.”

Ngema said the party believed returning to that model could help strengthen accountability within municipalities and reduce corruption.

He said the party wanted councillors who were already respected figures within their communities and understood the needs of the people they represented.

“All we want is to have people in municipalities who are able to conduct themselves properly within communities, who are respected and who have values,” he said.

He said the party was opposed to candidates who viewed political positions as opportunities for personal gain.

“A councillor must be a community figure who is there to make sure that the community benefits, not someone who is there for selfish reasons.”

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This was why, Ngema said, the party believed traditional and community leaders should have a role in decision-making processes affecting rural communities.

The party’s candidate lists, he added, would not consist exclusively of traditional leaders.

The MK Party’s manifesto proposes introducing a new “traditional government sphere” in local government and giving amakhosi a greater role in administration.

In South Africa, traditional leaders receive a stipend from the government.

In March 2026, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa confirmed to ATM leader, Vuyo Zungula, in a Parliamentary reply, that traditional leaders are remunerated in accordance with the Presidential proclamation issued in the Government Gazette, acting on the recommendations of the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, as provided for in section 219(1)(a) of the Constitution.

He said the remuneration framework established standardised salary levels and ensures that traditional leaders are recognised as public office bearers within the national remuneration system.

Sandile Jobe, who makes a living selling river water to his neighbours in KwaShukela.

Yolanda Mdzeke/ News24

Sandile Jobe, who makes a living selling river water to his neighbours in KwaShukela.

Yolanda Mdzeke/ News24

Hlabisa also confirmed that a number of traditional leaders had been granted access to join the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), with some already enrolled.

Work on pension benefits for traditional leaders was currently under consideration by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, he added.

But in communities where the water does not flow, and the promises have piled up, the pitch has met a mixed reception.

Sandile Jobe, who makes a living selling river water to his neighbours in KwaShukela, ward 10, Jozini Local Municipality, is unconvinced.

He argues that traditional leaders already have demanding responsibilities and should not hold both positions.

He said:

They must pick one and give others opportunities to work, because there are many unemployed people who want jobs. You can’t expect the Chief to do both. It will never work.

Jobe’s tractor idles on the banks of the Pongola River, a generator humming beside it as a plastic pipe snakes into the murky water.

The 27-year-old pumps river water into small JoJo tanks mounted on his trailer, filling them to sell to neighbours in KwaShukela for between R60 and R100, depending on how far he has to drive.

It is a business born of desperation.

At the same spot, children crouch at the water’s edge, scrubbing their school uniforms against the rocks. Less than 50 metres upstream, women and girls are doing the same thing, and others pull up to wash their cars.

Jobe told News24 that the scene on the riverbank is a snapshot of a water crisis that has defined life in this corner of northern KwaZulu-Natal for years.

The majority of the community, he said, has no choice but to use the Pongola River for everything - washing clothes and school uniforms, collecting water for household use, and in some cases, washing vehicles.

At the same spot, children crouch at the water’s edge, scrubbing their school uniforms against the rocks.

Yolanda Mdzeke/ News24

At the same spot, children crouch at the water’s edge, scrubbing their school uniforms against the rocks.

Yolanda Mdzeke/ News24

At the same spot, children crouch at the water’s edge, scrubbing their school uniforms against the rocks.

Yolanda Mdzeke/ News24

Residents are forced to share the water with cattle and donkeys, drinking and wading at the same points where people draw water for their homes.

Some residents walk kilometres to the river with bundles of laundry, then make the return journey home carrying wet clothes.

He said:

This has become our life.

What makes the situation particularly bitter, Jobe said, is that the infrastructure to deliver running water already exists in parts of the community.

He claimed the taps have a habit of springing to life when elections approach, only to run dry again once the ballots are counted. In a typical month, he estimates the community might get running water once.

“The sad reality is that we are voting, but we don’t know what we are voting for. We are suffering. Our lives don’t change. Only the councillor and his friends benefit,” he said.

The cruelty of the crisis, officials have acknowledged, is that Jozini sits beside a dam that is generally full.

Jozini Dam, also known as the Pongolapoort Dam, could supply roughly 70% of the uMkhanyakude district, former Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, said in 2023.

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But historic licensing delays, incomplete infrastructure and underuse of abstraction authorisation have prevented that water from reaching households.

In December 2021, weeks after the local government elections, Mchunu announced his intention to take over water services in the district, describing its system as unstable and dysfunctional.

By February 2022, the national Department of Water and Sanitation formally placed uMkhanyakude under a Section 63 intervention in terms of the Water Services Act.

More than four years later, the intervention is still ongoing.

Across the uMkhanyakude District Municipality, which spans four local municipalities - Jozini, uMhlabuyalingana, Mtubatuba and Big Five Hlabisa - residents tell strikingly similar stories of dry taps, rationed water and dwindling patience with the politicians who promised to fix it.

Sibongile Tembe lives in a mud house with her two children; she has been waiting for years for an RDP home.

Yolanda Mdzeke/News24

In Zama Zama, ward 6, Manguzi, a remote settlement in the uMhlabuyalingana Local Municipality within the same uMkhanyakude district, Sibongile Tembe is indifferent.

“At this point, I do not care who they field. We just need help,” said the 44-year-old unemployed single mother, washing clothes outside her mud house.

“But, judging from the way that they are campaigning, the IFP and the MK Party are going to do well.”

Tembe said she relies on her two children’s monthly grant to survive.

She does not have an RDP house. The municipality, she said, prioritised the elderly, starting with the grandmothers.

“It’s hard because I do not have a job,” she said.

“We are also struggling with the water supply because the municipality rations the water for seven days.”

Water in her area does not flow freely. It is rationed, cut off for seven days at a time, a measure that leaves households planning every bath, every meal and every load of washing around a schedule they did not choose.

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Like Jobe in Jozini, Tembe has learned to organise her life around water she cannot rely on.

When she raised these challenges with the local councillor, he told her he had no support from head office.

“Even these houses, he told us, the government only approved 26 houses for now, for the elderly,” she said.

“I do have hope, but it’s not strong because this councillor is leaving. We will be voting for a new councillor. Whether the next one will be able to look after us, we don’t know.”

The outgoing councillor, she said, has delivered nothing tangible for the community.

“The only thing that we have noticed since we voted for him is that he assists those who have lost loved ones. There is nothing that he has helped us with as single mothers who have lost our husbands.”

Political parties are battling over rural communities for votes, but residents say they never see any improvements after elections are done.

Yolanda Mdzeke/News24

Tembe has voted ANC all her life. Now, she said, she is thinking of voting for the MK Party.

“I was ANC, but I can see that it’s losing power. I am thinking of going to the MK Party.”

She continued: “The ANC has told us too many lies. They promised us water.”

On the MK Party’s decision to field izinduna and traditional healers as councillor candidates, Tembe is indifferent. The party, like many others, she added, is making a lot of promises, but she does not care much who they put forward.

Tembe has little hope that the 4 November polls will change anything in the district. She will vote, not out of conviction, but out of a sense of obligation.

“I will go and vote because we live in the community.”

Asked whether politicians still cared about the people, she said the government is simply overwhelmed by the scale of need.

“There are too many of us. We are grateful for the grant because, at the end of the month, we are able to go buy a 25kg [bag of mealie meal]. This politics is useless.”

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Tembe and her children survive on the child support grant, R1 000 a month. From that, she saves what she can towards building a house of her own.

“The children earn R1 000, and from that money I save a little bit to buy material to build a house.”

Back in Jozini, Jobe said water was only one of several problems facing residents.

He raised concerns about inadequate housing, saying some people still live in poor mud structures. Roads in some areas, he said, become impassable after heavy rain.

He also criticised political parties for what he describes as token campaigns.

Jobe recalled the ANC hosting a soccer tournament in the area recently, but said residents were left disappointed when the winning team received R800 and the runners-up R600.

He said:

It was a joke. And that is what we are to them – a joke. Politicians operate on the assumption that poor people are easily fooled.

But Jobe said that is changing.

“We see, and this time, we are going to show them at the poll.”

The water crisis has shaped how Jobe views politics ahead of the 4 November elections.

He said he has never voted before, having seen little reason to do so. That, he said, will change.

He said he stayed away from the polls for years because he could see that communities were being fooled.

With the ANC, IFP, MK Party and other political organisations already campaigning in the area, Jobe said residents are watching closely.

Jobe’s ultimate ambition, he said, was to earn enough money to leave the rural area for somewhere closer to town, where residents have better access to services, clean water, good roads and a functioning municipal presence.

“When you reside in a rural area, you are only useful when the elections are on their way.”

Back at the river, the generator keeps running. The children keep washing. The cows keep drinking. And the taps in KwaShukela stay dry.