We pay for non-existent service
‘I have many complaints but I would have to write a book and it would take forever’
BARRY ROBERTSON writes:
I have lived in Kempton Park since I got married nearly 41 years ago. It’s always been a clean, well-kept city but I’m afraid that has long disappeared.
This town has literally gone down the toilet and nobody seems to give a damn. I constantly try to phone about blocked sewers, broken water pipes, huge potholes – but I might as well try to contact the man in the moon. In fact, I would probably have more success than speaking to anyone in this useless municipality as no-one answers the phone.
For instance, about 10 weeks ago Highveld Road, which is at a four-way stop, had something repaired. A trench was dug across the road which was then refilled with sand and that was exactly how it was left.
In fact, the sand has since settled but for a long time you had to be very careful not to damage your car when you crossed it. (It has since been repaired).
A few weeks ago, I contacted Jaco Terblanche from the DA to get a sewer blockage and what looked like a burst water pipe repaired in Ceylon Street. First of all it took this useless municipality nearly a week to do the repair and now, a week later, the crater they dug in the middle of the road still has not been repaired.
All they have done is put some sticks, that have been taped with a few strands of red and white danger tape, into the crater.
About eight to 10 weeks ago, on the corner of Partridge Avenue and Highveld Road, two great craters were dug on the pavement and left. I see these craters were closed on June 13.
If you drive up Highveld Road towards the swimming pool, you will see a hole in the street that has been there forever. In fact, if you drive on Highveld Road from one end to the other, you will see numerous large holes in the road.
Is this the type of non-existent service we are paying for every month with our rates and taxes? I have many, many complaints. I would have to write a book and it would take forever if I wanted to describe them all.
I have two more complaints I wish to lodge with the clowns that run our city.
Two days after the water and rates payment deadline, residents receive final notices in their mail boxes even though they have not received their official accounts.
How can the municipality issue final notices when residents have not received their accounts?
If they can deliver your final notice why the hell can’t they deliver your account the same way, seeing we have a non-existent postal service?
A while ago a main water pipe burst on the sidewalk of Monument Road outside Kempton Park Primary School. The water ran down Swart Street into the completely blocked storm water drains. The burst pipe took almost five hours to repair while thousands and thousands of litres of water were wasted – but nobody cared.
How do I know this? I know because I live just down the road and went to see what was happening, only to find the driver of the back actor which was used to dig up the pavement, sleeping inside his vehicle with three small water pumps in the water where the damage was. And guess what? There was not another person in sight.
This is the type of non-existent service we are paying for.
