A TOWN ON A DOWNWARD SPIRAL
LADYSMITH is best known for a few reasons. It is the hometown of the award-winning choral group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The town is also famous for its battlefields, monuments and memorials commemorating those who fought in the Second Anglo-Boer War and the Siege of Ladysmith. But for its residents, the town is on a downward spiral.
Raj Maharaj, 53, of Acaciavale, remembers a time when there were well-maintained roads and freshly mowed lawns.
“Today, we have to pray we don’t hit a pothole. We have to contend with illegal dumping and overgrown bushes.”
Maharaj, who owns a packaging business in Leonardsville, said his late parents lived on a farm in Weenen, about 50km from Ladysmith. His father was a builder, and they moved to Ladysmith 54 years ago.
“My dad wanted to be closer to work, so my parents moved to Leonardsville and rented an outbuilding. A year later, I was born, and my two siblings followed.
“Over the years, we rented elsewhere in Leonardsville, but when my siblings and I started work, my parents applied to the Alfred Duma Municipality for a house, which we received in 1986. It was part of a rental housing scheme. We managed to pay it off, and to this day, my brother and I still live in this family home.”
The father of two said over the past 10 years, the Alfred Duma Municipality appeared to have lost interest in the upkeep of Ladysmith.
He said the municipality was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the area, while the uThukela District Municipality was responsible for water and sanitation.
“Most roads have potholes. It’s worse in the CBD. They are so big that you cannot manoeuvre around them. And repairs are done haphazardly. The workers don’t cut around the pothole, clean the area, fill it, and then steam-roll over it.
“Instead, the tar is filled and left. Soon afterwards, the pothole is bigger. The workers also don’t complete a task for some reason. On some roads, only half of the surface is tarred.”
Maharaj recently filled the potholes on the road he lived on.
“I have no choice. I rather do it now than when it gets worse.
“Hopefully, I inspire other residents to do the same, as we cannot depend on our municipality to do it.”
Maharaj said following heavy rain and flooding, the water remained stagnant for about five days.
“This comes down to poor infrastructure. The manholes are broken and blocked and we have a poor sewer system. God forbid the riverbank overflows.”
He is also concerned about a landfill site in the area that poses a health and safety concern, and illegal dumping sites.
“Since 2012, residents have complained about the landfill site being situated close to our homes. We live and breathe the stench that emanates from there, especially when it’s hot.
“While it serves as a refuse dump, residents are too scared to go there because of vagrants, so they dispose of their dirt on the nearby roadside. It’s worse when the vagrants make fires and pollute the air.
“Added to this, are the water outages. We have really been battling with the uThukela District Municipality, which is responsible for water and sanitation. Its core service delivery is water supply and over the last month we have received an intermittent water supply. Some areas have not received water for several days. The water tankers never stop at all the roads, so people are forced to carry heavy buckets from one road to another.
“And when we query the outage, we are told the water pressure is low because the pumps are not pumping enough water into the reservoir. The municipalities are failing the residents.”
Iqbal Khan, 74, who was born and raised in Leonardsville, believes some of the workers in the municipalities are unskilled.
“It also seems like they are not
offered training to do their jobs. So how can we expect a job to be done properly?”
The married father of two said while there was an abundance of street light structures, they often did not work.
“They even installed energy-saver lights, but that too is not working. Our streets are dark and as a result, crime is high due to youth unemployment. We see petty crimes – like stealing clothes off the washing lines – as well as robberies and break-ins.”
Khan said the community had employed a security company. “Each household pays R150 towards the company. They patrol and escort residents around the area when the need arises. The community police forum also works with the community.”
He said they had a proactive councillor in Abbas Warasally.
“We are grateful as he is always just a call away. However, the councillor can only do so much. He is just a messenger between the community and the municipality. It is the duty of the municipality to attend to our concerns.”
MB Mnguni, the acting municipal manager and spokesperson of the uThukela District Municipality, said the areas (Acaciavale and Leonardsville) get their raw water sourced directly from the river as opposed to other areas in Ladysmith that have constructed dams.
“Rivers get easily vulnerable to garbage, stray soil and waste, which end up accumulating silt on our pumps and cause seizures especially when flooding occurs. This directly affects reticulation in an instance hence the current situation at our Water Works.
“We, fortunately, have a competent team working around the clock to get all the affected areas back in working order as some areas have already started to get water supply.
“We will work on getting a budget that allows us to have submissive pumps on standby should we face a similar situation in the near future. However, we provide water tankers as an interim measure to the affected communities,” he said.
Siyabonga Maphalala, the communications and intergovernmental relations manager for the Alfred Duma Local Municipality, did not comment at the time of publication