Lepelle Northern Water has during the month of May experienced a leadership change whereby the new interim board was appointed to take over from the previous board which its term expired and was operating on a month to month extensions by the Minister of Water and Sanitation.
The interim board is led by Mr Joe Mathebula as the chairperson and deputised by Ms Yvone Mbane. The interim board’s intention is to stabilise the organisation and restored the brand of Lepelle Northern Water if not accentuating it to the highest level.
The interim board further wants to assure the organisation’s stakeholders of the good quality services with respect to the entity’s mandate. This was demonstrated by the chairperson (Mr Joe Mathebula) who hit the ground running in that he immediately requested the executive management to arrange meetings with the municipalities designated as Water Services Authorities.
During the virtual meetings with Mopani, Vhembe, Sekhukhune Districts and Polokwane Local municipalities’ executive mayors, they identified all the challenges that affect the service delivery of water services to their respective communities. All the executive mayors and the chairperson agreed on an action plans that were categorised into short, medium and long term implementation approach.
OHSAS 18001: Safety and Health.
Lepelle Northern Water is compliant to this standard – This standard covers all the Occupational Health & Safety Management systems within the organisation. Occupational health and safety of its employees and the interested and affected parties are all covered within this management system. Taking note that LNW is moving towards ISO 45000
ISO 14001: Environmental Management.
All LNW sites are compliant to this standard – This is the Environmental Management system standards. It ensures compliance to all legislations as well as caring for the environment in conducting all activities, products and services.
ISO 17025 for laboratories.
In terms of water quality, Lepelle Northern Water meets the standards of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the South African National Standards (SANS 241 – latest version) issued by the South African Bureau of Standards and the requirements of South African legislation.
ISO 9001: Quality Management
Lepelle Northern Water is certified to the requirement of the standard. Quality Management system focuses on taking the customers and interested parties needs and managing the realization of those needs into a product or services, that meets what the customer or interested parties asked for.