Kaydale residents approach president of SA to intervene

“Our human rights have been grossly violated for nearly two decades. For 18 years, there has not been any service delivery whatsoever for Kaydale residents.”

HEIDELBERG – Having the office of the president of South Africa respond within five minutes to an urgent email that contains a lengthy memorandum of grievances, speaks volumes – especially for the residents of Kaydale who say their human rights have been grossly violated for nearly two decades.

“The memorandum follows numerous attempts and efforts to engage with mayoral council regarding the provision of basic services,” Phakiso Makhanye, the executive secretary of the Kaydale Residents Forum (KRF) explained.

During an interview with HERAUT on October 23, he said that Kaydale is commonly known as ‘ugly stepchild of Lesedi Local Municipality (LLM), but years of neglect and ignorance has ultimately resulted in residents forming their own committee of which Phakiso’s father, Reginald is the chairperson.

The memorandum, which was sent to 22 legal entities and government institutions on October 16, provides a detailed and comprehensive report on how the community of Kaydale has been neglected in terms of service delivery by the Lesedi Local Municipality (LLM) for nearly 18 years. It reflects the current status, or total lack of services pertaining to infrastructure, water and sanitation, electricity, proper education and general health care. The strongly-worded document furthermore contains accusations of wasteful expenditure by LLM, the incompetency of unqualified municipal managers and employees, and at times it even refers to terms such as ‘political nepotism’.

“Kaydale Residents live in the intolerable conditions – we have no running water, no sewerage system or refuse removal, no electricity supply, no proper roads and no landfill area. Unless our plight is alleviated, the KRF could be tempted to take the law into their own hands in order to escape these appalling and lamentable conditions. But, as responsible law abiding citizens we elect to take a different route,” Mashego said.

Kaydale residents have not been allocated land by government – they purchased their own properties from a private seller. Some have built houses, while others still intend on doing that soon. But what stands as a hurdle to this constitutional realisation is the non-delivery of basic services. The root cause of their grievances is the intolerable conditions under which they are living, while waiting in vain for the provision of basic services.

“The municipality has failed to ameliorate the crisis situation in which Kaydale residents are living. The KRF do not blame apartheid, nor the current government, but we acted proactively by buying our own stands and building our own houses,” Reginald said during HERAUT’s visit to the area on October 26.

Some residents have resorted to unserviced septic tanks, unclean communal water taps and expensive solar systems, but the situation in Kaydale brings a harsh reality that the Constitution’s promise of human dignity and equality for all, remains for all a distant dream.

According to Reginald, LLM has not taken reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to redress the current problems or constitutional violations. “It also has not taken legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to have access to basic services complained about,” Reginald added.

In the event that the President’s office or national government and its departments cannot provide a remedy or redress to the current intolerable, appalling and lamentable conditions, we will resort to courts and we believe that our rights will be considered in the context of the cluster of socio-economic rights enshrined in the Constitution. They entrench the right of access to land, adequate housing, to health care, food, water, sanitation and social security.

Reginald and the aggrieved residents say LLM is complaining about not having enough revenue streams, yet it fails to recognise the urgency of providing basic services to the smaller community and address their revenue generating problem.

“Most, if not all wards within LLM have access to all basic services including but not limited to, recreational facilities and schools, whilst Kaydale have absolutely none,” he explained.

In the memorandum that was also submitted to LLM, some of the following demands were made:

• unequivocal provision of the following basic service on urgent basis
• that the President give instructions to Provincial Government to reject the non-inclusive Integrated Development Plan and direct the Provincial Government to administer the municipality until such time the Council has been reconstituted
• the appointment and/or contracting of a service provider to ensure the provision or construction of tarred roads and storm water services and to supply the community with clean and drinkable water
• the provision of sewage infrastructure and/or appointment or contract a services provider to provide the services
• the appointment and/or contracting of Electricity Services Provider in the event that the municipality cannot ensure the provision of electricity to our community, or to allow ESKOM to be a direct services provider
• the construction of a fully-equipped clinic that will provide all services or provision of a mobile clinic
• electrification of Effort Primary School and furthermore that the Department of Basic Education should devise a plan to transform the school to an English medium school to ensure that it caters for all children from different languages backgrounds, due to the fact that it is the only primary school
• the construction of a high school for children from Kaydale and Jameson Park
• full disclosure and engagement on the Memorandum of Agreement entered into between the municipality and companies in or around the Lesedi in terms of the localisation plans and the employment of local residents, including but not limited to Eskort, British Tobacco Limited, Vopac, Transnet and Heidelberg Mall
• an independent commission of enquiry to investigate blatant corruption on procurement processes of the municipality if none has happened, the employment of our community in all the companies

In line with the above, KRF is finally demanding to enter into a written agreement with the National or Provincial Government on the urgent provision of basic services to ensure commitment, transparency and accountability.

Advocate Gugu Thimane, HOD Corporate Services & Acting Municipal Manager at LLM responded to HERAUT’s enquiry by saying the vacant land at Kaydale is still privately owned and has not been demarcated by the Municipal Demarcation Board or proclaimed as a township or residential area as a result thereof.

“The owner has failed to enter a Service Level Agreement with the municipality for the provision of bulk services, which include water and electricity, upgrading of infrastructural services, housing and provision of community facilities. However, we are trying to engage with the owner to rectify the situation,” she explained.

She added that the legalities of the complex situation had been elevated to provincial level (Department of Human Settlements) as well as the office of the premier and that LLM will soon issue a formal statement with a clear indication of will transpire next.

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