Residents expressed their frustrations at the mayor and committee

EKURHULENI – Mayor Mondli Gungubele invited residents from Thokoza, Mandela, Empilisweni and the media to address the unbearable state of Thokoza hostels, following reports of prostitution, crime and underdevelopment.

After the mayor assured people that the municipality plans to eradicate the hostel system and start building units where people can live with their families and have the privacy and dignity they so deserve. He gave residents a chance to speak to him and his committee.

Although the municipality is already working on initiatives to fight prostitution and crime in the areas so that people can live in environments where they feel safe and at home, the mayor said if it was up to him, he would fire government officials who do not work or help improve the state of service delivery in the metro.

Moreover, residents were happy to have the mayor and his committee listen to their complaints without impatience. The people gave the mayor a chance to tell them what he and the municipality plan to do for them.

Mandela informal settlement:

Thabo Khuzwayo: “There is a dam near our shacks at Mandela where dead bodies pop up, because children fall in there and some people are killed and dumped there by criminals. We need something to be done about that. But to fix that, you should not bring people from somewhere else to come and work at Mandela, while we people of Mandela are struggling just to put food on the table.

“The mayor sent some of his engineers to look at the dangerous dam to come up with solution to bar it from children, while people were complaining about it.”

Empilisweni informal settlement:

Musa Nxumalo said: “We do not want solar panels over our shacks. they will bring criminals. Nyaope (a street drug) boys will steal those solars the same day you install them. Just give us electricity like everyone else. You said we must vote and we did, now provide for us.”

Thokoza:

Koki Radebe said: “Electricity is giving us problems, because nyaope boys steal the cables that have powder inside to use it to make their drugs. Our RDP houses have cracks and the roofs are not well done. We get cold, can something be done about that?”

Transnet under fire:

Residents of Mandela and Empilisweni informal settlements were unhappy that the municipality cannot build them houses where they live because the land belongs to Transnet.

Elvis Senyolo: “It is not right that you cannot build us houses because of Spoornet (Transnet). Bring them here so that they can tell us where it got this land they own. It isn’t like we build our shacks on the railway where the train rides.”

Metro police job

One man stood at the microphone and said: “The government encouraged our children to go to school and they did. Can they now get jobs at the metro police? All we see is people getting jobs through friendship. We want to see these young people working instead of just sitting at their homes and doing nothing all day.”