Download PDFDifferent civic movements from around Eastern Cape attended a workshop on activist journalism on 27 and 28 March 2023. One of the tasks was to go out to the street and interview the community on selected topics, including poor service delivery.
The first interview was held with 39-year-old Yolisa who stays at Molo Street around the area. She said she is not happy with the way the municipality is treating the community as they are struggling to get tap water. She said, “We go over two days without water, and even when we get the supply, the municipality provides us with dirty water which is a threat to our health.” She further mentioned that they are always complaining to the municipal offices, but they get no response.
Rhodes University student, Ntuthuzelo, who stays out of campus said he struggles a lot when there is loadshedding as there is no option but to wait for the electricity to come back before he can continue studying and doing his assignments. He added that water scarcity is the worst as he also goes for days without water. He often goes to campus for assistance as the campus was donated with water tanks by a private company making them able to help with a few litres per day. Ntuthuzelo said he is also unhappy with how the community and municipality are handling refuse as it is all over the area. He said, “If only our community wouldn’t litter anywhere but in allocated places and our community collected the rubbish everyday, we would have a healthy environment.”
Ntuthuzelo said that communities are fed up with how the local government is handling things and believe it is now time for people to wake up and fight for what is rightfully theirs. He said that there is no accountability and there is a lot of corruption going on, as a result, there are no funds to improve a lot of situations they are faced with as communities where service delivery is concerned.
This article was submitted on 28 March 2023. 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.
