Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Ward councillor blamed for forgotten city Sandvlei’s woes
WHEN it comes to service delivery, Sandvlei residents claimed to say they are a stepchild to Macassar's ward 109.
Sandvlei, Macassar Village, and the south-east of Baden Powell Drive are among areas that make up ward 109.
The area is well known for being a small farming community as well as for notoriously experiencing devastating floods almost every year.
However, locals feel as if their closeknit community is in a different country since they have been ignored when it comes to service delivery.
Residents have been left in the dark this week, without receiving any assistance during the storms and flooding.
This is after a main cable supplying electricity broke off due to severe weather conditions, which has also seen hundreds of structures demolished in the Western Cape this week.
Madjie Salie, 48, who has been living in the area for more than 40 years, described Sandvlei as a “forgotten world” when it comes to services.
Salie blamed local councillor, Peter Helfrich, saying he failed to provide adquate support to Sandvlei.
Salie, like many other Muslim residents who experienced a lengthy power outage, had to throw away their food for their Eid celebrations.
“The food was all rotten so we had to throw it away. The councillor doesn't care about the people. He is a picture councillor,” Salie said.
“The same with the floods. He wasn't at one house in Sandvlei, he was just seeking attention and wanted to be seen in newspapers.”
“I was born in Sandvlei, this is a family thing. There is a massive history of Sandvlei that no one knows about.”
It wasn't until Thursday that Sandvlei and the Kramat communities' electricity was restored after angry residents blocked the road with burning tyres.
Beaufort West farms, portions of Kraaifontein, Khayelitsha, and Lynedoch were among the other communities left in the dark.
Eskom said they were attending to the outage. “Technicians are attending to the faults, but it should be noted that the amount of faults due to the storms has left a significant backlog that our response teams are working through,” they said.