“Act like a municipality, act like a municipality that will deliver proper services because people here are crying, the constituency of Mamelodi is saying you are not assisting, so come and help our fellow human beings, these people are human beings,” said EFF Tshwane Sub-Regional leader Bongani Ramontja yesterday as he deplored lack of service delivery by the City of Tshwane in the Leeufontein area, which is on the outskirts of Mamelodi township.
Leeuwfontein area is the place where about 570 Mamelodi flood victims were relocated late last year, this after their shacks at various informal settlements around Mamelodi were washed away by torrential rains in 2022.
“We are very disappointed to realise that the area was not prepared thoroughly by the municipality to accommodate the flood victims,” he said.
“City of Tshwane municipality led by DA and ActionSA misled and lied to the flood victims because before relocating them, they told them that the place is ready and in a good state; that services like water, electricity and sanitation are there; but when they arrived at Leeufontein none of the promised services were there,” lamented Ramontja.
“The only thing that is here is the shacks of the relocated flood victims with communal toilets which are far away from their shacks and residents are scared to go to the said toilets at night as the area is pitch black,” said Ramontja.
He added that crime is rife in the area at nighttime due to the darkness.
According to Ramontja, the supply of water in the area is not enough as it is delivered not every day but on alternate days and those that are employed always miss out on a chance to collect supplied water with buckets, this as there are no fixed Jojo tanks at Leeufontein.
“It is inhuman to bring people to such a place where there is not even transport and residents have to walk for about five kilometres before catching transport to work,” he said.
“Even buses which are supposed to take learners to school don’t come into the area so parents have to take their children to a place which is about two kilometres from their homes so that they can catch the said school buses,” he said.
“We need serious Intervention here at Leeufontein and we are saying to the MMC of Human Settlements that you promised people services, but you are not delivering those services, you supplied them with toilets, but those toilets are stinky and not working at all,” fumed Ramontja.
Another member of the EFF Jacob Mokwana, who stays at the nearby Amanda Park informal settlement, told Tshwane Talks that he came to Leeufontein to listen to the concerns of the residents regarding their personal safety.
“Residents leave for work under darkness in the morning and they also return under darkness in the evenings and as a result they don’t feel safe and have expressed a need for a community policing forum that would patrol the area so that they would be safe from incidents of being mugged,” said Mokwana.
Leeufontein resident Carlina Mashilo complained about the communal toilets that are outside their shacks and a bit far away and that it is not safe to use such toilets.
“Water that is supplied to us is poured into buckets and by the time we reach our shacks the water is already dirty due to the dusty area” she said.
Another resident, Dimakatso Motshana said she was most concerned about the supply of water because it is given only to those who happen to be in the area at the time if being supplied and those that happen to be away from the area at that time when miss out and will have to wait for two days or so before water would be supplied again to the area
“Another concern that I have is that our communal toilets are not properly cleaned but are just wiped and this may lead to our health being at risk because we share the toilets with many other people in the area,” said Motshana.