Marathon residents are breaking the silence on poor service delivery from the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) with water and power outages at the top of the list.
Wiseman Mahlali, who has been a resident of this informal settlement since 2017, gave insight into the community’s problems.
“One tap in this area services the whole community. This is worsened by long queues as residents from other places come to collect water from the same tap.”
Mahlali said water supply has been one of the main concerns.
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“It takes a long time to fill up a 10-litre bucket and our tap is considered better compared to those in other sections.
“Every day, we wake up early to fill our buckets before everyone starts flooding the tab. We need more services in the area. We feel abandoned by the CoE,” said Mahlali.
He also complained about the lack of waste removal.
“We dump at certain designated areas and sometimes burn it. Our toilet systems are the worse. We still use pit toilets we had to dig ourselves. In an event whereby the tap is damaged or stolen, we help restore it.”
Considered the guardian of the water tap, Mahlali requests help from neighbours to replace the damaged tap whenever it is vandalised.
“On weekends, we see people from other sections who travel from far to do their laundry here. People from Marabathon, Cell C and Emazulwini come here,” he said.
Nthuthuko Ndlovu, another resident, said electricity supply is another concern as the municipality does not provide this service.
“To iron our clothes, we use a steel iron and you have to warm it up on a paraffin stove,” said Ndlovu.
GCN sent a request for comment to the CoE on the concerns raised by the residents.
Comment was requested by August 23 at 10.00.
At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
Contact the newsroom by emailing:
Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za, or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za
