Community of Ward 22 feel left out on service delivery

Community members of Ward 22 in the Mpofini area have come forward to address certain issues and challenges with regards to service delivery.

Illegal dumping sites, the election of ward committee members, potholes and sewage leaks are the main complaints. Mkhuliseli Mhlongo, who is a community leader, explained that they feel neglected as the people of the Mpofini area, because all their service delivery complaints are never attended to. ‘’My main concern is that: How come we do not know the people who were elected to be our ward committee? We do not know them; we do not know where they stay; we know nothing about them. One of the people who was elected is not even from this area, so how is that person going to attend to our complaints if they don’t know us or the area? We have not seen them do any community work.’’

Phindy Magwaza, also a member of Ward 22, commented that, “There is a specific piece of vacant land near where I stay, with long grass that causes an obstruction when one drives because you cannot see oncoming cars. In the mornings, it’s worse because there are schoolchildren everywhere and it is hard to see them. If you do not know the area well, you might drive through and cause an accident. Since I am familiar with the place, I know I need to stop and check if there are any cars or children along the road. I have been mowing that grass out of my own pocket for almost five years now to avoid obstruction. Another problem is that if the grass is too long, people tend to use that land as their own personal dumping site. However, if the grass is cut, it is clean for that period of time. I have tried numerous times to get the municipality to help us, but nothing has been done and that is why I contacted Mr Mhlongo and our councillor.”

Ward 22 councillor Mlu Lambiso commented as follows: ‘’I know all that is taking place in my ward, Mr Mhlongo and the other people must know and understand that ward committee members do not work straight away because they haven’t been given authorisation to work. This is similar to councillors; they get elected first and they get ‘ordained’. That is when all councillors meet and are presented in the council. The ward committee members have been elected, but they have not been presented in front of council, so they cannot work at the moment. I am very much aware of the land that people use as their dumping site – there are lots of places that people use to throw their rubbish. I have tried to clean a few of them, but after a few weeks, people start throwing again. The solution to this issue is to find the rightful owners of the land and ask them to occupy their space; they can start a business or whatever, but the land must be used for something to avoid land pollution. With that particular land that Mam Magwazi is complaining about, it is said that the owner has passed on and now we have to look for other family members and tell them to use it for something. It is also in my plans to go and clean it while I look for the family members.”

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