Modjadjiskloof municipality dropping the ball?
Modjadjiskloof residents are still fighting an uphill battle for access to basic services in the Greater Letaba Municipality's area of responsibility.
The Herald has been following the lack of services in Modjadjiskloof for some time now and with the creation of a Residents Committee in January this year, things seemed to be heading towards a solution. Unfortunately very little has changed since then. Residents are still their wits end, due to a variety of problems that have received very little in the way of attention.
This after the Herald published a piece (in the Herald of July 8) about the GLM’s successes in developing more than half a billion Rand’s worth of infrastructure in the area. Residents are fuming and as one anonymous resident told the Herald:”The Mayor gives his team a pat on the back and most days we don’t have water to drink or cook, never mind bath.”
Last week the Herald was invited to join a Whatsapp group, which was created in an effort to improve communication between residents and the GLM. Messages poured in and it was soon clear that it was the GLM’s media representative, Lovers Maentje’s turn to fight an uphill battle, in trying to placate the unhappy Modjadjiskloof residents.
Water seems to be the biggest problem, with water trucks taking water from an already overloaded system in order to supply outlaying villages and the town’s residents either being left high and dry for large parts of the day, or being supplied with dirty water, once the water is turned on again. Low water pressure seems to also be a massive problem.
The general feel seems to be of a town let down by the very people who are supposed to take care of them. Issues range from electricity interruptions, overgrown sidewalks, and the town’s graveyard left in a state of chaos and disrepair, to building rubble being left on sidewalks for weeks on end and Municipal houses not being maintained.
A reliable source informed the Herald that after the last meeting between the GLM and the Residents Committee (on May 25) where the committee complained about the Municipal houses and their lack of upkeep and maintenance, the only result was Municipal employees mowing the lawns of these houses.
“Every financial year money is set aside in our Municipality’s budget for the maintenance of their houses. At the end of the financial year, the money is gone and the houses still look ready to fall apart,” the source told the Herald.
At the time of going to press, some parts of Modjadjiskloof have been without water for four days.
