Relief in sight for Eluxolweni

There is hope for residents of Eluxolweni who have been living under unhealthy conditions due to municipal supplied mobile toilets that have been neglected for months.

Earlier this year the residents of the area revealed a heart-breaking story about how badly not having a properly functioning toilet has threatened their lives and safety.

However, yesterday during the municipality’s Infrastructural Development Portfolio Meeting it emerged that the Eastern Cape Development Corporation would fund a project to fix plumbing problems to the tune of R4 million.

This emerged after DA councillor Xolani Madyo asked in the meeting who was supposed to service the mo- bile toilets at Eluxolweni.

Infrastructure and Technical Services director Dali Mlenzana said the problem of unserviced mobile toilets in Eluxolweni was historical. He explained that the Human Settlements department had undertaken to fix the plumbing problems that caused the inside toilets not to work. However, according to Mlenzana the department had subsequently backtracked on the undertaking.

Mlenzana said the municipality had appointed a service provider to provide the mobile toilets and as part of the agreement the service provider was meant to service the toilets.

The service provider, according to Mlenzana was dragging its feet in maintaining the toilets by hiding behind the fact that Makana wasn’t paying them on time. Mlenzana confirmed that the ECDC had provided funding to fix the plumbing in Eluxolweni.

“The project is budgeted for in this financial year,” he said.

Water and Sanitation manager Ntombi Shicelela, said the municipality had appointed a new service provider to deal with mobile toilets. Commenting on the matter, committee chairperson Mabhuti Matyumza said the situation at Eluxolweni was a health hazard, adding that something needed to be done to resolve the situation. Matyumza said the municipality had even suggested using its own honey sucker to minimise the problem at Eluxolweni.

Earlier this year Grocott’s Mail reported that residents of Eluxolweni, a small community located just a few metres from Jacob Zuma drive, are forced to go to the nearby veld to relieve themselves because their flushing toilets don’t work and the mobile toilets they were given are not regularly serviced.

In June Grocott’s Mail visited the area after members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who were conducting door-to-door visits in the area contacted the newspaper to ask that the situation the families were living under be exposed for all to see.

The houses, which were built in 2009 remain unconnected to water or sewerage systems. Almost seven years after their houses were built, residents of the area still rely on a communal tap to get water and when that tap runs dry they have to walk a few kilometres to nearby areas to get drinking water.

After years of being without proper toilets, the residents say they were given mobile toilets by the municipality in 2014. The residents were happy to use the mobile toilets in the beginning but after a while the municipality allegedly kept failing to service the toilets for months at a time.

The residents of the area are still without title deeds as well. Councillor Ramie Xonxa who is part of the committee also called on Matyumza as the chairperson to crack the whip on officials who aren't pulling their weight.

Xonxa called on municipal employees to be innovative when dealing with problems that face the municipality and stop hiding behind the municipality’s bad financial situation. “I assume that we have appointed innovative people in Makana,” he said.

Xonxa encouraged managers to sometimes consider utilising local SMMEs to deal with smaller challenges be- cause there were people who possess skills in Makana and they would even be cheaper than established service providers.

Matyumza said the only way people who were not performing would be exposed would be to intensify internal controls within the directorate. Other issues raised by Matyumza in the meeting were that the Infrastructural directorate had accounted for the most overtime claims, adding that this needed to improve. “There is too much lawlessness from where I am seated,” he said.

Matyumza emphasised that the committee’s role, which comprises mostly councillors, was to play an oversight role.

“It’s expected of officials to implement. It is not for us to implement. We talk, we don’t implement,” he said.