Concerns are once more rife amongst residents of Ward 61, regarding the increasing incidents of water and sewage pipe leaks and electricity tripping in the area.
Residents say that the ANC-led Tshwane Council has, over years, not budgeted enough monies to
replace old infrastructure, such as worn out and leaking pipes and old electricity cables and streetlights.
This follows almost each week, residents complaining of blocked sewage pipes, leaking water pipes, non-working streetlights and electricity disruptions at their homes, which residents say is mainly caused by old infrastructure, which the Council has not replaced for years.
This follows yet another report of a blocked sewage manhole reported to the Laudium Sun over a period of three weeks. Residents living in the area at the corner of 2nd and 3rd Avenue in Laudium, say they are frustrated with the ongoing sewage leak from a manhole drain on 3rd Avenue, as all attempts to reach out to the Council and the Councillor to have the drain unblocked, have been met with deaf ears.
According to the angry residents, they have been contacting both Cllr Patel’s office and the office of the Council, since around July 29, when the blockage started, but as at the past weekend, still no response had been received.
Prem Somlal of 2nd Avenue told the Laudium Sun, “It is with great sadness that I need to inform you and the community, that our Councillor is really useless and doesn’t think anything about our community. So many bad things are happening around Laudium, but our Councillor is not focusing on these issues at all. The sewage leak on 3rd Avenue has been ongoing for weeks now and not a single Council worker has came to inspect it. We reported the incident a long time ago, but no one from the Council came to fix it. The stench, the dirty water and the sewage coming out from the blocked leaking drain is becoming a serious problem for us. It is on the main street which connects to the R55, but still the Council workers have turned a blind eye to it. The services that we are receiving from the Council and the Councillor are really terrible. I just hope that residents will vote wisely this time so that we get a new Councillor in this coming election on November 4, who will attend to our Municipal related problems. As residents we cannot face another 5 years with Cllr Naeem Patel, as we need better services and a politician who doesn’t divide us in the name of religion and politics. We need a Councillor who will listen to the community and take the problems of residents seriously. We are tired of reporting problems and waiting for someone to come and
attend to them. This sewage leak is not something that should be ignored because it is affecting residents and people who use the road every day. The situation is becoming worse, because sewage continues to pour out from the drain, with residents and businesses in the area forced to live with the smell and filthy water. This is a public road and many people use it to travel towards the R55. We cannot understand why the Council did not come to inspect the problem after residents reported it. We are asking the Council to come and look at the problem and fix the sewage leak immediately. Our community deserves proper services. We pay for services and we expect the Council to respond when there is a problem. It just cannot be that when residents report a sewage problem, then nothing happens for weeks. This is why people are frustrated and angry. We need action, not just promises. I believe that the residents of Laudium deserve better services than we are currently receiving. We want a Councillor who will work for everyone in the community and not only for certain people. We want someone who will listen
to our complaints, attend to service delivery problems and make sure that the community receives the services it deserves. The sewage leak is just one example of the many problems that residents are facing.”
Moe Aslam, also of 2nd Avenue, told the Laudium Sun, “This is really bad because the sewage leak has been going on for weeks, but the Council workers have still not come to fix it. We cannot understand why our Councillor, who is aware of the problem, has not escalated the complaint. We are really disgusted by the Councillor’s neglect of our complaint. I just hope that the leakage will be fixed immediately. This situation is becoming very frustrating for us as residents, because we actually have to live with the dirty and smelly water coming out from the blocked drain. The leakage has been ongoing for weeks and we cannot understand why the Council has not come to attend to the problem. We expect the Council to respond immediately when residents report problems like this, especially when it involves sewage, as this is a health risk also. Residents should not have to continue waiting for weeks for Council workers to arrive to fix a problem that has already been reported. We are working and living in the area and we are the people who have to deal with the situation every day. We are disgusted with the poor service we are receiving from the Council and we demand, as ratepayers, that the Council take the matter seriously. We cannot understand
why nobody has come to fix the leakage which has been ongoing for weeks. When residents report a sewage leak, we expect the relevant Council workers to attend to the problem immediately. We should not have to keep waiting while the leakage continues. I am really disappointed because this is something that should have been attended to by now. The longer the leakage continues, the more frustrated residents become. We are asking for the problem
to be fixed immediately so that residents can return to their normal activities, instead of facing a smelly and unhealthy situation each day.”
The Laudium Sun has, at the time of going to press, been informed by a resident in the area, that the sewage leak has finally been attended to.