As the lockdown comes to an end, the people of Sgodi Phola, Daveyton, in Ekurhuleni, East of Johannesburg are experiencing water crisis. Whenever there is a burst pipe, it goes for a long time without being fixed. That will result in the whole neighborhood going without running water for days. This problem has been an on-going one. The community is now blaming the ward councillor for not installing proper quality pipes.
“We spent four days without water, no one was able to bath nor cook ” said, Nomonde Simelane. The community of ward 68 thinks the issue involves corruption, they even threatening to protest again.
“We see she hasn’t learned her lesson, she still wants to learn the hard way”, said Terence Kungoane. The community previously organised a protest where one person poured dirt and a bucket full of human waste into the councilors house. The people were fed up with bad service delivery. Services improved since then until a few months back when the first pipe burst. After it was fixed, it took a week before the pipe burst again. This resulted in people not having water at all for four days.
“We find ourselves in a situation where we have to rely on fast food and its not healthy, especially during a pandemic where people must always stay healthy”, said Rethabile Mahanetsa. Now the community waits for service delivery and for the ward councillor to fix the issue of transformers which were supposed to be serviced long ago.
This article was submitted on 17 August 2020. 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.
