Pensioners freezing due to lack of maintenance

Some pensioners staying at Eureka Park in Carletonville are currently freezing in the winter cold due to the municipality’s lack of maintenance at the housing facility.

One of these unfortunate residents is 84-year-old Mr Johan Griesel.

“I had just said goodnight to my daughter on the phone one night when I heard a noise. When I went to check I saw that the ceiling of my bedroom had collapsed,” Griesel told the Herald this week.

Although this has already happened four months ago, Griesel has still not been helped.

The octogenarian, who has no family in our area, now has to sleep with cold air streaming into his room.

“It really gets very cold in here. Last night it felt as if I was sleeping outside,” he told the Herald.

Griesel and a local councillor, Mr Ben van den Berg, have been reporting the issue to the Merafong City Local Municipality several times since it occurred. They did not get any help, despite the fact that a woman who apparently works for the municipality has an office in one of the housing units next to that of Griesel.

Griesel also complains that the municipality has done no maintenance at his housing unit since he moved in nine years ago. He showed the Herald how, because of this, the paint is peeling from his walls. According to Van den Berg the geysers in two of the other housing units have also been out of order for months.

“I have reported it several times and has also escalated the problem, but no one is listening,” he complains.

The Herald took the issues to the municipality on Tuesday, but did not receive any feedback by printing time.