They just want our votes, they don’t care about our needs – Ekurhuleni residents
The City of Ekurhuleni’s state of service delivery has drastically deteriorated.
This can be seen by the pool of sewage streaming down the streets of Zuma section in Katlehong.
Residents detailed how the sewage has been running in their doorway for the past four days, without City officials bothering themselves to fix it.
Josia Nhlapo, in Twhili Street, told The Star on Monday that the sewage has been spilling for the past four days, adding that they don’t even bother reporting it anymore, as officials would come and leave it as is and wait for the weekend to fix it.
“These people (employees) would come and look at it and leave to go have drinks, and then come back on Sunday to try to fix it. Sometimes, they would deal with the issue, and it would be okay for a day or so, then is starts spilling out again,” Nhlapo added.
He said politicians didn’t have any issues with what the community was dealing with daily, “as they would come around these times to try to pretend that they are working for us”.
Mohau Nketu echoed Nhlapo’s sentiments, saying that politicians did not care how they were living as the community, saying that the only thing they cared about was their votes.
“I wish I could take you to my house and show you that I literally live with sewage in my own house. I am glad that you guys are here to expose the things that are happening in that municipality.
“Their employees are busy drinking during working hours, and they would come here on a Sunday to ensure that they are being paid overtime at our expense,” a visibly angry Nketu said.
The metro’s spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said the allegations that the City’s employees were leaving things until Sunday in order to to be paid overtime, as “far from the truth”.
Dlamini said their employees were working every day, adding that there was no way such things would happen.
“People will also make assumptions when they have issues, people put in all sorts of foreign things in the sewerage reticulation and pumps. We recently launched the ‘Siyakhuculula manje, namhlanje’ programme, which is aimed at unblocking the systems. We launched it in Katlehong,” he said.
“I don’t want to entertain the overtime issues, but what I can tell you is that we have stand-by teams who are ready to deal with any issues, anytime of the day,” Dlamini said.
The City of Ekurhuleni is notorious for its failure to provide adequate services to its residents. Late last year, Primrose and Elandsfontein residents took to the streets to protest after losing most of the food they bought, due to ongoing power and water cuts in their area.
This was the result of them being forced to live for more than 20 days without electricity and water.
The Star
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