Tedstoneville residents demands service delivery in the area
The area has become unsafe and an eyesore to us residents and no one seem to care.
Tedstoneville residents Ursula Botha and Samantha Graham said they reside in a forgotten area and this is evident by the lack of service delivery.
Botha has been living in the area for 17 years and Graham for 30 years. They both said it is sad to see how Tedstoneville has deteriorated over the years.
“The area has become unsafe and an eyesore to us as residents and nobody seems to care. Service delivery is non-existent. If we as residents don’t do it ourselves it never gets done,” said Graham.
A community meeting was held on July 1 and residents expressed their frustration with power issues at the top of the list.
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Other concerns are poor maintenance of open spaces, streetlights not working, potholes, lack of traffic signs, illegal connections, illegal dumping and requests to close walkways between Ramaphosa and Tedstoneville are not considered.
Graham said residents call on the City of Ekurhuleni to assist them. She accused the ward councillor of not responding to the community concerns.
“The last time we spoke to our councillor was last year. She does not communicate with residents. We do things ourselves. It’s not fair because she needs to help us as residents but she is not,” said Graham.
He said residents feel unsafe as criminals use the walkway between Ramaphosa and Tedstoneville to flee the area after burglaries.
“We are like sitting ducks. When there are burglaries, criminals run into the field and they know no one will follow them. The area is not safe and illegal dumping attracts the undesirables to our area.
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“We put up all the safety measures but sometimes it’s not enough. We need these spaces to be closed off. A wall or palisade fence needs to be put up,” said Graham.
Botha said most of the residents in the area are elderly people who have lived in the area for years.
“These are homes to families who have lived here, some for over 30 years,” said Botha.
The area was also affected during the recent widespread Germiston power outage.
“No one bothered to keep the community informed. The Tedstoneville power outages were not part of the recent Primrose and surrounding areas’ power outage. The customer centre did not listen to our concerns.
“We waited for days only for the problem to be fixed later and found out it was a substation that was the problem,” said Graham.
She said they are not only affected by power outages but also illegal connections because of backroom dwellings.
“Some of the illegal connections are visible but they are not being addressed. We report these issues but they never get attended to,” said Graham.
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She said streetlights have not worked for years and this causes an increase in crime.
“It’s easy to get robbed or attacked in the street. The streets are so dark you can’t even see what is going on,” said Graham.
The residents said the lack of traffic signs causes concerns for children’s safety.
“Children play in the street and cars speed. When we request drivers to slow down they say they did not see the stop sign. This is true as they are not visible and some signs are even blocked by overgrown trees,” said Botha.
GCN contacted Ward 42 Clr Motloung Tsotang on July 5 and 6 and on both occasions, the call was not answered.
A WhatsApp message was sent on July 7 and no response was received.
A request for comment was sent to the CoE on July 6 and again on July 7.
A the time of going to print to comment was received.
