Metro promises broken year after year
For seven years a Bhisho resident has been asking Buffalo City Metro to remove a septic tank from her yard, to no avail.
Every time Balasi Valley resident Nonela Khoza pleads with the metro to remove the tank, which she said was costly to maintain, and change it to a sewerage system – the response is always the same: there is just no budget for it.
Khoza is one of many ratepayers who are frustrated by the city’s “poor turnaround time” in addressing service delivery challenges.
Khoza told the Daily Dispatch: “I am the only resident in my area who has a septic tank. I don’t want it, it’s costly to maintain and it’s a health hazard as it overflows when I don’t have money to pump it out – at R800 a month. I have been asking the city to change it to a sewer system since 2012 and they always tell me about the budget and promise to look at it the next financial year.”
Because the septic tank is not connected to the metro’s sewerage system, every time it fills up Khoza has to cough up R800 to empty it.
Municipal spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said Balasi Valley was a residential area that was privately developed in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
He said Khoza’s property would be developed as part of phase two – but would not say when that would be because of financial constraints.
“Original layout plans suggest that her property was already existing when the land around her property was purchased. Her property therefore could not be connected to the sewerage network due to the terrain.
“The property can only be drained to a sewer manhole approximately 400m from her property, at an estimated cost of R1.2m. The municipality is therefore not in a position to connect one property at this cost,” he said.
But residents in Mdantsane and Phakamisa are equally frustrated with the city.
In one case, the municipality admitted it was in the dark about a burst water pipe that had been gushing clean potable water for at least two months in Mdantsane.
This is despite Ntombomzi Kebe of NU3 saying she had reported the leak in August.
Because it was not fixed, it flooded her home.
The 74-year-old said: “Our reports fall on deaf ears.
“Every time we report the matter, we are told the workers will come – and sometimes they do come, but they never actually fix the problem.”
Ngwenya on Tuesday said they had not been aware of the problem and promised technicians would be sent.
It was fixed on Wednesday, Kebe confirmed.
Illegal dumping has been a problem near the home of 200m 2012 Olympian Anaso Jobodwana’s Phakamisa home and a local daycare centre.
Residents said they were tired of pollution from the rubble, garden waste and other waste materials at the illegal dumping site.
Anaso’s sister Lonwabo, who has repeatedly tried cleaning the place herself, said her efforts and those of other residents were continuously undone by builders and garden workers who were hell-bent on dumping in the residential area.
“Every time we report this, BCM officials say they will come next week but they never do.”
Ngwenya told the Dispatch that “the matter will receive attention”, but he did not say when.
I don’t want a septic tank – it’s costly and it’s a hazard