Well, I have written about this before, and I will continue to write about it in order to shame our metro.
I am talking about the conditions of housing complexes run by our municipality.
One of them being the Andries Scribante Haven flats in Cason.
Last year in November we reported that the metro said it was fast-tracking the process of appointing a contractor to repair the out-of-order lifts at Scribante.
At the time, the Advertiser was told the metro is following a shortened supply chain management process that is aimed at ensuring that by end of November a contractor is appointed so as to commence with the project.
The Andries Scribante Haven is an Ekurhuleni-owned block of flats for the elderly.
You see, when the lifts are not working, we have the elderly, the frail and the sick having to make use of the stairs because the metro cannot fix the lifts.
In one of my editorial comments last year I did shame the metro on this. Now in February 2018, guess what? Yes, the lifts are still not working. This problem has been ongoing for a while, despite the Advertiser reporting on the situation at Scribante on numerous occasions.
One of our journalists visited these flats and you can find the story on page 3. It is not just the lifts that are still not working, but generally the service the elderly and the frail are receiving, it seems, leaves much to the imagination.
The place is falling apart, is filthy, yet those who stay there have to settle for such a sad state of living because most probably they have nowhere else to go.
Again, I pose the question to the metro: Is the treatment of the elderly at Scribante indicative of the metro’s attitude towards the frail and the old?
But wait, it is not yet Scribante that has caught our eye.
We also did the story of those living in homes belonging to the municipality in Sky Street and how they are having problems with their solar geysers.
Geysers that were installed in June last year by a contractor hired by the Ekurhuleni metro within some of the homes soon starting giving problems. And guess what? Geysers still have not been fixed.
Then we find the Van Dyk Park residents who live in the metro houses on Groendoring and Bramble streets who have been bathing with cold water due to solar geysers that were not connected after being installed.
Shocking, isn’t it? Yes, we are talking here about local government, but surely this lack of care and service speaks volumes about the lack of care and service dished out by the government at large.
After all, if millions are being ‘lost’ due to corruption and greed – millions that could help the poor and the needy – then surely there is a genuine and sincere lack of sympathy.
And maybe this is what is going on in Boksburg. Where is the sympathy for those crying out for some kind of attention, just so that they can use the lifts and have warm water?
Yes, I know, there are even bigger problems in the informal settlements, but then again, this also speaks of the government’s continued failure to take care of its people.
A leadership without heart is a dangerous leadership. It is one that borders on tyranny and dictatorship.
Let us hope the tide will turn, from the highest to lowest levels of government, so at least we can be served by a government that genuinely cares for its people.
After all, our government has been put into power by the people, and is supposed to serve the people, and not supposed to feed its own coffers and ambitions.
