The signs of neglect in Greenville, an informal settlement along London Road, are not hard to spot. Children splash through ankle-deep streams of wastewater running up and down the littered street, pots of food boil beside streams of sewage, and potholes stretch across Dublin Road.

According to the residents, these are not just service delivery issues; they are symptoms of the absence of a committed community leadership, tasked with the responsibility of escalating their issues to the councillor.

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Unlike the adjacent Mahauzana flats in River Park, where residents benefit from structured engagement and active leadership, Greenville remains rudderless. So, residents like Mpho Phibantu and Patrick Ngidi have taken it upon themselves to report issues, their efforts often being unsupported.

Thabisa Mazantsi, a vocal resident in the area, expressed concerns about the issues, noting that even with the challenges they face, they’ve never had a community meeting. “We have never had a meeting. Community groups are as good as non-existent. We never sit down and talk about these issues.”

She noted that it has got bad, to such an extent, that blocked sewers and illegal electricity connections are met with resignation, rather than collective action. “People have accepted the situation here. If there is a blocked sewer, or no electricity, they move simply on with their lives.”

Ngidi, who recently helped resolve a blocked sewer line, by calling for the intervention of the manager of a nearby paint firm, where the sewer was coming from, admitted that no one has formally escalated these issues to Ward 81 councillor Joanne Horwitz. “We cannot wait for a structure to be formed. It is going to take decades.”

Horwitz acknowledged the lack of communication and proactive outreach. “I get a lot of information by the grapevine. It’s hard to get a good sense of what the real problem is. I must admit, it’s also incumbent on me to reach out.”

Her co-operation with community leaders has, in the past, yielded results, providing service delivery solutions for areas like Mahauzana, an indication of what is possible when a community has active leaders who consistently escalate their pressing issues to the councillor. In Greenville, the ground level structure is not there.

“We just live as individuals. If you suggest a WhatsApp group to report things, they don’t do it. We don’t even give each other contact details,” Mazantsi shared, adding that without proactive outreach, Greenville’s challenges remain buried beneath passive acceptance.

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