Municipal Dialogue with Community

Makhotla Sefuli

24th April 2022

Matjhabeng local municipality

The Free State Goldfields is one of the most populated areas as a result of the gold chase of the 70s to the early 90s. This influx and migrant labour brought along a great need for the development of residential areas, the then apartheid government didn’t have a spatial plan for such developments.

The mushrooming of informal settlements around our townships and the excitement of our cities as they grow resulted in a mammoth task for the new government of proclaiming and formalizing those areas.

There’s no proper planning for reticulation of services and water and sanitation in particular, the old sewer system and the storm water drain system could not withstand the increased volume of and alternative ways had to be found.

The only option is to use the generator to pump raw sewerage from the residential areas in the storm water drains. The problem is that the current infrastructure was not designed for this size of the population, there are blockages on every street corner especially on the east side of the township because that is the area that came as a result of the proclamation and formalization of informal settlements.

Most of the residents complained about the main holes that are within their properties, they are always blocked by the large volumes of sewer and instead of flowing they retract back to the surface.

The only solution the municipality could come up with was to use generators to pump sewerage into storm water channels.

The major concern about these generators is that they are situated on street corners and traffic circles in the full view of the public, young children are playing right next to those generators while the engine is still running. Another problem is their vulnerability to the small time crooks who are always scuppering for scrap metals, that means that the municipality has to employ security for those generators because they are rented from a private company.

The major concern is the amount of money that is spent on diesel to keep them running because they have been there for a number of years now.

As GUBICO we feel strongly that the municipality is in direct violation of the rights of citizens to clean environment and both blue and green drop status because that storm water and raw sewerage go to the same discharge point.

It is our intention to look into the different avenues to lay a formal complaint against the municipality because a crime is being committed in broad daylight.