How long must we live like this?

“WHY DO we have to wake up smelling the sewage stench and go to sleep at night smelling that same pungent smell? How long must our residents live with this water flooding their homes? How long before anything is done?”

This is the cry of residents living in Ikageleng, otherwise known as Blikkiesdorp. There cry is not uncommon as many living in the city, and across the Northern Cape, are faced with this reality on a daily basis.

“The residents have raised the issue with the Sol Plaatje Municipality and are issued numbers, but nothing has been done yet. Our people are forced to live like this on a daily basis. They are exposed to the sewage flowing down the streets as a result of the blocked drains,” said one resident.

“This waste ends up in our yards. The residents are forced to play hopscotch over the sewage water in the streets. We fear for our children who are exposed to this as they play.”

Another resident said she has complained to the Sol Plaatje Municipality on numerous occasions. “My house is flooded with sewage water. I have reported the problem to the municipality. Every time I get a number from them, but nothing happens,” she said.

Others also wanted to know how long they had to wait for action to be taken.

“How long must we wait for help? Where are the councillors in this matter? Whose department is accountable to this matter?” they wanted to know.

Residents in other areas are asking the same question. “We constantly contact our councillor, but he is either unavailable or does nothing about the issue.”

Santa City residents are also up in arms.

Approximately two months before the general elections the residents vowed that they would not be voting as a result of the sewage problem and other issues.

At the time they warned politicians. “Stop spewing empty and hollow words from your mouths. If you can’t say something that will actually materialise, don’t say anything at all. And don’t come knocking on our door for a vote. You will be lucky to find a door that you can get to without dirtying your shoes with the sewage blocking the entrance of our shanties.”

This is just one of the issues that the residents here face on a daily basis. Here they are still forced to use the bucket system. Another pressing issue for these residents is housing.

Old people in the area using the bucket system are most vulnerable and young people are taking up the cause to fight for basic services.

“Some of our older residents, like 70-year-old Anna Moraki, have been pushed around from pillar to post. She was forced to move from behind Shoprite and when the then Sol Plaatje executive mayor, Mangaliso Matika, came to make his sweeping promises, Ouma Moraki was promised a house. You can see nothing has happened since and even though she is sickly, she is forced to make use of an outside toilet,” one young activist said.

Housing is another pressing issue, not only in Santa Centre but all over the Province.

Santa Centre residents say that they have been fighting a losing battle “since the dawn of democracy”.

“We first settled in behind the Shoprite centre. They then told us to move to where we currently are. Then they told us that we need to give our names and ID numbers so that we can qualify for a house when they start developing the area. We did this and when we went to enquire about our numbers, we were told they were never registered. Does this mean we will be forced to live under these conditions forever?”

Before the general elections, the residents said they were promised that their issues would be addressed after the elections.

“The elections have come and gone and nobody has bothered to come to us.”

They say that a housing representative was supposed to hold a meeting regarding housing and putting their names on the housing list. “There was a lot of confusion around this meeting and we are still where we were.”

The chairperson of the Sol Plaatje City Council’s housing committee called for a status report on Santa Centre in September last year. However, that report has still not seen the light of day.

Service delivery is a major problem in the Province and on the day of the general elections voting was disrupted at the Holpan voting station as a result of this.

Residents were adamant that they would not put a pen to the ballot papers until they had seen a massive improvement in service delivery.

The opening of the voting station at the St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Holpan was delayed after the police fired rubber bullets when they were pelted with rocks by protesters.

Areas such as Ritchie, Windsorton, Barkly West and Warrenton have also had their fair share of service delivery protests.

Coghsta said yesterday in response to the lack of service delivery in the Province that municipality’s should put the people first.

“A responsive municipality is the one that puts its people first as the core functions of a municipality is centred around people,” Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Goghsta) spokesperson, Xhanti Teki, said on behalf of MEC Bentley Vass, yesterday.

He went on to say that public participation is a very important aspect in the operations of a municipality.

“Councillors who are lazy have no space building towards a modern, growing and successful Province where local government plays a significant role. Councillors must be obsessed about being agents of change in resolving challenges faced by our communities, they must either shape up or shift out,”

He went on to say that communities must be relentless in holding their councillors accountable.

“Local government is a ‘buffer zone’ and a focal point for service delivery therefore it cannot be business as usual when sewage runs unendingly in the streets. A clarion call is made to all municipalities in the Province to double their efforts in providing quality service delivery.”

On the housing issue, Teki said that the circumvention of the beneficiary list occurs as a result of an absence of a housing allocation committee.

“The MEC is issuing a stern warning to all municipalities that don’t have housing allocation committees to get their houses in order. Provision of sustainable human settlement to beneficiaries is a constitutional right, therefore allocation of houses cannot be done in a discriminatory manner,” Teki said.