Gauteng residents face service delivery woes
ILLEGAL electricity connections, non-functioning street lights, potholes and uncut verges are among the service delivery challenges plaguing communities in Johannesburg.
Despite their calls for intervention to the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, they say not much is being done to improve service delivery.
Yusuf Khan, a community activist from Azaadville, said residents had taken it upon themselves to keep the area clean.
“We have about 2 000 households and we are most compliant when it comes to paying our utility bills and rates timeously. Yet, we have overgrown verges, street lights that don’t work, potholes and constant water outages. The lack of interaction between the municipality and residents are resulting in these issues going unattended.”
Khan said residents were tired of waiting for action from the municipality.
“We are fortunate that we have a lot of charitable people living in this community and they sponsor funds or materials for what we need done. Just recently we worked with two of our councillors to get sponsored solar power to light up our streets at night.
“A group of ladies in the community had also taken it upon themselves to collect money from residents to get the verges cut and maintained.”
Khan said they had received sponsorships from the community to fill potholes.
“We are working with the councillors to get things done. Sadly, they are also in a tricky situation because they are also waiting for assistance from the municipality.”
Imraan Seedat, the chairperson of the Lenasia Residents Association, said the suburb was surrounded by eight informal settlements which had resulted in the population increasing to approximately 250 000 people.
“There are not enough resources to cater for the population in this area. We have one police station which has 14 staff members and one provincial clinic for everyone. Our street lights don’t work, our grass is overgrown and we have illegal electricity connections which at times cause power outages.”
Seedat said residents were constantly reporting issues to the municipality but nothing was being done.
“Crime is also a problem, especially petty theft. People cannot even leave garden tools outside without them being stolen. Our area is in a state of decay and nobody seems to care.”
Imtiaz Loonat, a community activist in Actonville, said since 2021 the municipality had failed to carry out regular maintenance in the area.
“The community is made up of lower and middle income families. It was previously a predominantly Indian area but now we have more of the coloured community that has moved in, as well as foreign nationals from
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. We have one informal settlement with over 3 000 shacks.”
Loonat said potholes were a major problem, as was the cutting of the grass in public spaces.
“We have illegal connections from an informal settlement in a neighbouring ward. This poses a danger because the live wires are exposed. Sometimes it causes power outages leaving residents without electricity for days.
“Some of our street lights don’t work and this contributes to the crime. Crime is also high due to the drug trade in the area. Drug addicts are stealing copper pipes and any other items they can to sell to feed their habits.”
He said the residents had complained to the municipality but they were slow at responding or fixing the problems.
Paul Benett, a community activist in Laudium, said among the community’s biggest concerns were the non-functioning street lights.
“When the street lights don’t work, it allows criminals to get into homes and rob people without being detected.
“As a community we came together to purchase a few solar lights for our streets so we could feel safe.”
Bennett said they had about 70 000 people living in the community.
“Our trees are not trimmed on time. The verges are overgrown and this is another avenue for criminals to hide out. Our bin bags are not removed on time and some people illegally dump their refuse in the overgrown verges.
“This leads to an infestation of rats in the area. There is also a stench that poses a health hazard to residents.”
He said everything had a ripple effect. “Illegal connections, potholes and our stormwater drains are clogged. We also have informal settlements on the outskirts and the infrastructure cannot take the pressure.”
Bennett, who is also a member of the community police forum (CPF), said crime was of huge concern.
“People are afraid to walk on the street or send their kids to school. With the CPF, we have been conducting patrols. The councillor for the area tries to help residents with their issues but the municipality is not quick enough to respond,” he added.