Street lights and illegal shacks upset Sheffield residents

An emotionally charged public meeting between municipal officials and the informal Sheffield community took place at the Salt Rock library last Thursday.

The meeting was organised by Ward 22 councillor Privi Makhan to provide feedback to local residents on key issues effecting the ward, among them being the status of street lights in the region and the Sheffield housing project.

However, the meeting was also attended by shack dwellers from the Sheffield informal community who are facing imminent eviction.

Human Settlement senior manager Nqobile Thungo addressed the issue of illegal shack dwellers at the Sheffield site and said the municipality would take action to remove the shacks built illegally on municipal land.

Thungo said land invasion was wrong and would not be allowed or condoned in the municipality.

She said it robbed people on top of the list of beneficiaries of land and RDP houses.

“All these other people who sell land or stands are criminals taking advantage of our vulnerable members of society. It then becomes a sad situation when people get evicted,” she said.

Also attending the meeting was Sibusiso Jali the executive director of KwaDukuza municipality’s electrical engineering services department.

Jali gave a report back on the state of the street lights in Wards six and 22. The lack of working street light in the area has been a contentious issue for residents for over a year, with even the main roads in Ballito left in darkness.

Delays with the supply chain management process in appointing a contractor also added to the problem.

Jali said that between the two wards, 800 faulty street lights had been reported and attributed the problem to damaged cables caused by fibre optic contractors installing internet connections to residential homes.

“Excavations by fibre companies have caused extensive damage to the street light cables and the problem cannot be resolved by just changing the light bulb,” said Jali.

The electrical department appealed to the residents for patience as the current contractor had been assigned a 14 month contract to work on the lights and get the streets lit up again.

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