Due to numerous complaints received about the unhygienic living conditions of residents along Pursad Street, Actonville, City Times visited the area accompanied by Ward 29 councillor, Haseena Ismail on August 10.
“The street is in a shocking state,” says Ismail. She says this shows a lack of willpower by the ANC and its coalition partners to provide service delivery.
Ismail says the area overflows with filth, and that the roads are in a bad state of disrepair, with potholes all over the place.
“Walking through the street, you are met with raw sewage, and portable toilets that take up a small portion of the road.”
Ismail says the non-removal of waste, the illegal dumping and the failure to clean up the toilets in Pursad Street, have been repeatedly reported to the relevant departments, but all of this have fallen on deaf ears.
“These issues have been brought to the mayor’s attention before, and his “Siyaqhuba Campaign” was meant to address them, but to date, nothing has been done,” she said.
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Ismail says the informal settlement was meant to be a temporary measure to address the needs of residents without houses – the residents of the Homeseekers informal settlement – until their houses were ready for occupation.
“They are meant to move to the houses that are being built in Chief Albert Luthuli in Daveyton.
“These are paying residents, but at times they don’t have electricity. Trying to rectify this bears no fruit,” says Ismail.
“The ratepaying residents of Extension Two in Actonville are having to bear the effects of non-service delivery by the metro,” she said.
Ismail says this is the responsibility of the Department of Human Settlements, but nothing seems to be happening.
“The department isn’t doing anything about it, and now there seem to be more people who have moved here,” she said.
“It is a health and environmental hazard for all residents.”
When Ismail approached the metro to highlight these problems, the response was that the council was still conducting a verification process.
Ismail says this is what she was told in January, but since then nothing has been done to ensure that the residents are provided with their houses.
“It is a constitutional and basic human right to live in dignity, and the metro is violating this right,” says Ismail.
A comment by the Ekurhuleni metro had not been received at the time of going to print.
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