Fochville street a nightmare
"The municipality knows about this because their vehicles drive past here every day."
A street in the lower part of Fochville is a nightmare for residents.
“I hung my head in shame when I drove through the bottom part of town for the first time in a long time today. It is filthy; there are papers everywhere, and it stinks. What is happening to our once pretty town?”
These are the words of a concerned resident of Fochville last week.
One of the dirtiest areas where the conditions have deteriorated the fastest is the section of Potchefstroom Street near Bosman Street.
Litterbugs have started throwing rubbish into several vacant yards between Potchefstroom- and Siebert Streets. Some of it presumably comes from people rummaging through the contents of dustbins for recyclables.
Instead of putting the rest back into the bags for municipal collection, they dump it in open stands.
Despite several pleas to the municipality to collect the garbage or force the stand owners to clean up, Merafong has done nothing.
The problem is now so bad that members of the Fochville CPF (Community Policing Forum) complain that the open stands draw criminals, who sleep among the bushes. Although residents have cleaned up the area themselves in the past, the litterbugs mess it up again almost as soon as they leave.
“The municipality knows about this because their vehicles drive past here every day, but they will probably wait until 25 May, just before the election, before they start cleaning,” a resident living opposite the rubbish told the Herald this week.
In addition, the municipality continues to ignore several dangerous potholes at the Losberg Avenue crossing. Although concerned residents previously filled them with sand, they are open again.
The Herald took the issues to the Merafong City Local Municipality on Tuesday.
“The problems will be attended to during a service delivery programme coming to the area soon,” said the municipal marketing and communications manager, Mr Temba Fezani.
