More than eight months after last year’s local government elections, there is no slight of improvement in the provision of basic service delivery in the broke Ditsobotla municipality.
When locals of Lichtenburg, North West, cast their votes in the November local elections, they did so in the midst of town plagued by untarred roads, gigantic potholes, power cuts, lack of reliable water supply and heaps of uncollected rubbish on every street corner in the township.
When Sowetan visited the area last week, the situation was so dire that business owners and residents were fed up with the municipality.
In Boikhutso township, heaps of uncollected garbage lined the roads, making it difficult for the cars to drive through. Some people were spotted going through the pile of rubbish in search of scraps to sell. The untarred road were littered with potholes.
There was a strong stench of sewage, which residents seemed to ignore as they were making their way to fetch water from a communal tap.
Dan Phiri, 32, has been running a furniture repair shop in the CBD since December.
Phiri said constant power cuts have pummeled his business as he uses power tools.
“Usually, we would experience a power cut around 11am. The power will only be restored later at 4pm. We go five hours without working. We cannot do anything with our tools. It is painful,” said Phiri.
He said this power failures made him lose customers in April. “The client brought a couch for us to fix. I told him the couch will be ready after three weeks. When I started stitching it, we had a power outage for several hours. When the power was restored, I decided to stitch the couch quickly so that I can finish the job. As a result, I made slight mistakes and the customer was not happy,” said Phiri.
Ebrahim Dhorat, 29, who runs a car sales company, said the unreliable water and power cuts have made him lose customers.
“Two weeks ago, we did not have water for four days in town. I had 10 cars that I needed to wash before selling them. They were dirty. Luckily, I have water at home stored in buckets. I have been storing water since 2015. So, when we had no water I quickly drove home to get water,” said Dhorat.
Ditsobotla municipality has been rocked by ANC factional battles, which led to the collapse of service delivery and saw the appointment of 14 municipal managers, four speakers and four mayors in just six years. It’s currently under the administration of the provincial government.
Sam Mokgadi, 30, who lives in Boikhutso, catches a taxi to town every day to buy a 5l bottle of water, which costs him R5.
“The water I buy is not enough. I only use it to cook. I cannot bathe with it. We have been having this water problem for a long time. I have even given up on hoping things will change in Ditsobotla. Lichtenburg does not have a municipality,” said Mokgadi.
Municipal manager Tsietsi Shema said they were addressing the issue of roads and potholes, saying that a tender was already out.
On power and water cuts, he said: “Power cuts are affecting boreholes that are pumping water to fill our bulk storage and power outages are blowing our electrical transformers up. The municipality has presented a plan to eradicate old asbestos water pipes to the water services authority to curb water loss in our system.”
He said the municipality was overstretched when it came to rubbish collection. He said the council had three tipper trucks to deal with refuse. “The municipality is in the process of procuring specialised machinery and equipment.”
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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