Sharpeville residents have detailed how they have now been forced to live with piles of garbage and deepening potholes due to the collapse of service delivery in Emfuleni municipality.
According to the residents, who live in one of Emfuleni's townships, refuse collection has not been taking place since November. This has left residents with no choice, but to take garbage to nearby open fields.
This happens while the municipality has been under provincial administration since June 2018.
Mosioa Thulo, who lives in Sharpeville's Tshepiso section, said the stench from the garbage was becoming unbearable.
“It is a serious health hazard. It smells a lot, especially on hot days. I am worried about children who play at the dump site. The councillor knows about this. The municipality knows about the situation, but nothing has been done,” Thulo said while cutting grass at his home.
The dump site is situated just across Thulo’s house. Another big problem in the township is the potholes which have widened and become deeper due to persistent rain over the past weeks.
Some of the motorists were even scared to drive on the roads choosing to make U-turn while taxis were brave to pass through, driving at snail’s pace.
Sibongile Raboroko of Vergenoeg in Sharpeville said the state of roads needs urgent attention.
“There is no stormwater system to control waterflow. As you can see, my home has been flooded due to the pouring of rains over the past weeks. We also experience regular power outages while there is no load-shedding,” Raboroko said.
Sharpeville is a historic township as it hosts a monument which marks the spot where 69 people were killed in 1960 by the apartheid police during anti-pass laws protest which was organised by the PAC.
Sowetan visited the township yesterday as Gauteng co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Lebogang Maile briefed reporters in Sandton on the progress that has been made in the efforts to rescue the troubled municipality.
Maile said Emfuleni debt stands at R4.6bn, with R3.2bn of the amount being owed to Eskom and R1.3bn to Rand Water R1.3bn. Emfuleni also owes Red Ants security company R35.7m.
Maile said the municipality plans to pay creditors owed up to R1m in full within three months and those owes up to R30m within six months.
A payment agreement has been reached with Rand Water and a payment scheduled is being with Eskom, Maile said.
He added that one of problems that has exacerbated Emfuleni’s finances is that its bank account was attached by one of its creditors last year. This dropped the municipality’s revenue and severely affected service delivery.
“After going through legal processes, we managed to reverse that situation and are currently busy finalising a process to change signatories on the municipal accounts so that the team of administrators can have full access and can proceed with the work to turn the municipality around,” Maile said.
Maile announced several interventions to turn financial fortunes of the municipality.
These include:
-starting a project to convert electricity meters to prepaid and ensure that large power users have smart technology allowing them to be remotely read;
-introduce water meters in the townships and meter audits be conducted in suburbs;
-the department of water and sanitation to provide the municipality with eight sewer unblocking trucks at a cost of R14m;
-R52m to be set aside for the rehabilitation and resealing of roads. R400m is urgently required for road resurfacing in the municipality;
-R40m has been set aside to address electricity losses;
-Gauteng province has set aside R53m to restore weekly collection of waste.
Maile said the provincial department of agriculture and rural development will procure trucks on behalf of the municipality and these will be delivered no later than March.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.