As the Hammanskraal community continues to grapple with ongoing water challenges, one woman has emerged as a local hero: Linah Ramalepe has stepped in to provide community members with water from her borehole. Ramalepe, 53, from the Stellenbosch area in Hammanskraal, felt compelled to intervene when cholera broke out, prompting her to lend a helping hand to the community. “What worried me was that water is expensive and there is high unemployment.
At least I can work and I have a borehole in the yard. Why can’t I share with them what I drink? Because it’s a nightmare,” she said.
Ramalepe, who was Mrs Tourism 2023, said she advocates for clean water. There are other households in the area with boreholes but they prefer to sell their water to other residents. She said she understands they might need the money to help pay for electricity.
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“It’s not because they want money; it’s because electricity is very expensive. They just want to cover other resources that need financial management.” She felt she could cope with her expenses. “I said God gave me a job, a better paying job.
As a child of God, let me share. Let us share with the ones that can’t afford it. I don’t look at it as an expense; I look at it as a helping hand to the needy.” A tap, connected by pipe to a JoJo tank inside her property, has been placed outside her yard for residents in need to get water.
While she admits that it is a struggle to provide the water, she hopes others like her who have the means will also extend a helping hand. “People are struggling and I don’t see it ending soon — but maybe because there are many changes that are going to happen, maybe from next year they will consider water as life. If you give people water, you are giving them life.” Ramalepe’s caretaker, Alfred Mpete, told TimesLIVE that the 2,000lwater tank at the house is filled more than five times a day so people can get water.
He said desperate residents often ask Ramalepe if they can buy water from her but she insists on giving it to them for free, given their situation. He said people from other areas, including Kanana and Majaneng, come to get water, with some having to cross a narrow bridge from Temba to reach her place. “Some even bring bakkies,” he said.
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