Download PDFResidents of Kliptown (south of Johannesburg) are complaining about the poor services delivered, including poor health care and emergency services. On 5 October 2021, Kenneth Van Schalkwyk was laid to rest due to these poor services.
79-year-old Kenneth Van Schalkwyk passed away on 30 September. The day before, on 29 September, he was severely ill and his son, Sunnyboy, tried to get help from the Kliptown police officers. They told Sunnyboy that the ambulance was on its way, so he rushed home to prepare his father but ended up waiting for hours.
Fed up, Sunnyboy went to find out when help would arrive, but they told him that the ambulance drivers were afraid of the high crime rate of the area. His father passed the next day.
This is not all the people of Kliptown are complaining about. Neo said; “I am tired of the police always arriving late when they are needed the most. “What are we voting for?”
Surreya Kumar is another lady who nearly died because the ambulance never arrived. She said they called emergency lines several times but got put on hold for few minutes and then the call got ended in their ears.
Kumar had to get escorted to the nearest clinic by Sharon Swarts and Jaynodean Benjamin. Sharon and Jaynodean had to help Surreya and take care of her without proper medical essentials for a weekend until they could take her to a clinic, which only opened on Monday.
Jaynodean added; “Many times we call the police for help and they tell us they will arrive in a few minutes, but instead they arrive after many hours and at times they don’t even arrive”.
The community of Kliptown has complained that they keep voting for different parties, but they never see any improvement. All they seem to get are empty promises.
*Tyreesha Benjamin is from PUSH OVC in Kliptown and is a member of Tshohang Batjha!, the Jozi Book Fair’s high school youth project.
This article was submitted on 6 October 2021. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article (https://karibu.org.za/voting-campaigns-continue-in-kliptown-but-still-no-change-in-poor-services/).
