This river, which has in the past flooded because of heavy rain, has caused damage to the surrounding property and is polluted to the where residents cannot stand the smell.
The RECORD spoke with Andre du Toit, a resident whose property borders the river, about his ongoing struggle with the municipality to get this matter addressed.
According to du Toit, this problem has been going on for years without help from the municipality in addressing the matter. He has in his personal capacity had to restore the walls of his property after damage to it because of the swelling of the river, which is used as a stormwater channel, during a storm, as well as attempted to strengthen sections of the channel to prevent it from happening.
Du Toit also said the quality of the water is appalling. The water even becomes brown and is accompanied by the smell of sewage. The source of this pollution, as far as he could discover, is upstream, where the river comes out of the City of Johannesburg.
Du Toit has been in conversation with the City of Ekurhuleni through letters addressed to the municipality, the relevant departments, the MMC and the mayor.
In these letters, du Toit outlined the problem and asked for help from the municipality. To date, there has been no conclusive response from the municipality which department handles the maintenance of the river. It was, however, stated in a previous message from the municipality that, as a natural stream, it is the responsibility of the residents to maintain the river. Du Toit said this claim is baseless.
Du Toit recently had a meeting with the councillors to resolve this issue. He requested that this issue be escalated to the mayor but, to date, nothing has come of this meeting.
The RECORD requested a comment regarding this issue from the mayor’s office, but no comment had been received at the time of printing.
