MUDDY STREETS PUSH RESIDENTS OVER THE EDGE
FRUSTRATION: Jacksonville residents took to the street yesterday to express their frustration with endless service delivery complaints as well as the ward councillor who does not want to address their issues. Pictures: Danie van der Lith JACKSONVILLE residents burnt tyres and barricaded the road in the informal settlement and also threatened to burn tyres outside the home of the ward councillor, due to a range of service delivery complaints, yesterday.
They stated that despite houses being constructed in the area, they were living without basic amenities.
“We are still making use of the bucket system. There is no water, sanitation or electricity. Whenever it rains, the road turns into a mud bath and we cannot get out of our houses. We will stop the contractor from completing the housing project until the road is fixed. We have been living like this for the past 21 years. The water is rotting with the smell of sewage. The Lerato Park housing project started after Jacksonville and there is a lot more progress there. They are fortunate enough to have running water and electricity.”
They are also demanding the removal of the ward councillor.
“The former ward councillor Dennis Pienaar can come back. The councillor never gives us feedback. He has a mouth full of lies.”
Residents demanded to be given timelines as to when their concerns would be addressed.
“How many times must we stage protests? We will be taking our protest to the main road. We have handed in countless memorandums to council without there being any progress and are tired of empty promises. The mayor who was the former speaker walked in the same road with the same problems and now he is dodging us.”
Sol Plaatje municipal speaker Santa Johnson admitted that there were serious road and sanitation problems in Jacksonville but stated that burning tyres was not the solution.
“There are drainage problems due to the clay composition of the soil and we will bring in a storm water drainage expert from Pretoria. A report was compiled in 2017 on the problems by the councilor and we are aware of it.”
She came to the defence of the councillor and explained that the municipality had failed to approve money from the budget to pave the roads in Jacksonville.
“It was a bad week as the director was busy this week. I will return with him to the area to see what can be done.”
Johnson refused to be drawn into giving a deadline as to when the service delivery complaints would be attended to. “I will not make any promises as we will have to source funds to pave one or two access roads. Every time our request for funds for roads in Jacksonville is denied.”
Ward councillor Paul Kok believed that there were undue attempts to ruin his reputation that were spurred on by individuals with personal vendettas in the community.
He stated that the community had not proceeded to light tyres infront of his house.
“I am always willing to serve the community. I have advised the community that we are waiting for the engineer to come and inspect the area. I am continually putting pressure on the municipality to place Jacksonville on the IDP project. I have written countless letters to the mayor and handed a report in motivating for the road to be built. However there is currently no money to fix the road.”