Phalaborwa: Leaking sewer still a living hell

The Democratic Alliance Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality team took it upon its shoulders last Saturday to initiate a petition for residents to voice their concerns to Mopani District Municipality.

The petition, already signed by over 130 residents reads as thus: “We the residents of Namakgale Mandela Village ward 6 requests the Mopani District Municipality, the water authority in collaboration with Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality and the water service provider to attend to a sewer leakage in our area.The sewer leakage remains active despite several attempts by the local municipality to fix and maintain it. It has been years living under this health hazard situation where we are experiencing sicknesses due to this awful air we breathe”. It has since emerged that an infant was found in the sewer in October 2014.

“My mother and I were busy preparing breakfast for the children when we noticed something that looked like a human being on top of the heavily leaking sewer. We immediately went to check it and our instincts were spot on. It was an infant wrapped in tissues. Namakgale police officers and Maphutha L. Malatji Hospital pathology team came, but we never heard anything from them afterwards,” explained a resident opting to remain anonymous.

The resident further said their ward councillor, Thomas Mukansi is useless. “We engaged him many times about the leaking sewer, but all he does is just coming to check it, promising that municipal officials will fix it. Hardly a week after they tried fixing it the situation returned back to square one,” emphasized the furious the resident.

The DA’s team led by Proportional Councillors, Belius Ramothwala and Michael Mathebula joined by ward 6 councillor candidate Martha Modjela and other activists spent the day visiting households getting signatures intended for the petition.

“I have been a resident of this zone since 1992 and this sewer has been a living Hell and continues being a hazard to our health. We decided to go ahead with the petition for the authorities to see that when we say our people’s constitutional rights are being violated it isn’t a joke,” said Modjela.

As previously reported by the Herald last year, a family and neighbours in Mandela E are furious with the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality for failing to permanently repair a leaking sewer for over five years. What started as just a mere sewer leakage is now home to a dam inside the poor family’s yard while the stream is overflowing from the street into the wet land leading to Nyakelang four bridge.

When our journalist arrived at the street on Sunday afternoon, house number 777 owner, Essy Mohlala, was busy preparing lunch in a makeshift kitchen outside her family’s RDP house while her daughter’s teenage boys were sleeping on the veranda as a direct order to refrain from playing in the sewer dam. Ward 6 councillor Thomas Mukansi was unavailable for comment at the time of going to print, but previously admitted that the sewer is a hazard to residents’ health and would communicate with the technical director to have it repaired as a matter of urgency.

He also accused the Economic Freedom Fighters for trying to score cheap political points. The situation was still the same on Saturday with Mohlala’s family eating their lunch five metres away from the sewer dam whilst their street has since turned into a piggery field as vehicles cannot pass as it is muddy. Mariam Phaswana said she moved in the area two years ago.

“Two retail workers had to go find alternative accommodation as they couldn’t bear the awful smell in the yard. There is nowhere we can go, this is our home and we just have to hope that one day someone will come to our rescue,” said a frustrated Phaswana. Namakgale Police Station spokesperson, Constable Lebogang Selepe said a case docket for concealment of birth was opened at the time, but the suspect was never found.