Forgotten people
Silvertown residents live in absolute squalor
THE shocking living conditions of the people of Silvertown have led them to believe they have been forgotten.
With only one tap serving about 200 people, Silvertown neighbourhood watch forum treasurer Zukile Ngxabase said the fact that it was leaking made it even worse.
“When we got this tap the area around it was never cleaned. We raised funds for a cement gutter to lead the water away from the tap area.”
More than one tap was needed and Ngxabase said while they acknowledged the fact that the municipality had said they would be relocated “a fire will not wait for us to move.”
On Tuesday, The Rep reporter took to the dusty streets of Silvertown to observe the living conditions of its residents.
Dogs sat under the tap and a pig was drinking water about two metres away.
Simnikiwe Njadu, who has tuberculosis and lives about 10 steps from toilets that do not flush, said she started getting sick when the toilets were placed next to her home.
“I battle to breathe at night and my chest clogs up because of the smell of faeces. We asked the municipality to remove these toilets but they only came to remove everything that was in the toilets.”
She claimed the waste was dumped behind the houses and children were playing in the filth.
“I had a sore near my pelvic area and toilets.”
Njadu’s neighbour Nomiki Bangiso, 60, said she had been confined to her home after a hip operation at the time the waste was removed from the toilets.
“You could see big maggots in my home. The sewage flowed from the back of my home to the front stoep.
“There are so many flies here that I have lost my appetite. The municipality must please remove these toilets. When I used them, I got an infection and my stomach was swollen. After that I never used them again. Now I use a bucket.”
Bangiso claimed that despite requests made to the municipality to clean up the mess, nothing was done.
Calls for the removal of the toilets had been made since February.
The Rep reporter a drainage system which was releasing sewage into the Komani River, where pigs and dogs were swimming. “The river flows behind Silvertown. It smells as if we are sleeping with a bucket of faeces in the house. We are breathing in this air and I can feel that I am not fine. So how much more do our children have to breathe in this air and eat these pigs?”
A 10-year-old boy, who did not want to be named but who wanted to be a police officer, said he wanted to live in a cleaner area.
Councillor Bulelwa Rhani said she was not permitted to answer the media and referred The Rep to Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality spokesman Fundile Feketshane.
At the time of going to press Feketshane had not responded to queries.