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Empty taps force rural voters to share drinking water with livestock

After voting, it's back to collecting water in Nqadu area

Decades of democratic participation bring little relief as communal taps run dry across Mbhashe villages

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Moments after casting their ballots at sunrise in the Eastern Cape, elderly residents in Nqadu returned to the grim, decades-old routine of fetching muddy drinking water from streams shared with livestock. Despite dry communal taps and persistent service delivery failures, villagers turned out to vote with fading hope of seeing meaningful change.

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