Residents of Kokosi struggle with ongoing sewage crisis as Merafong fails to act
The municipality will have to attend to these problems.

Residents of Kokosi who stay in the area of the ZCC Church have a terrible time as huge amounts of sewage are streaming down streets in this area.
Huge amounts of sewage constantly stream from manholes in an open veld across from house No. 1531. The sewage streams from the veld into nearby streets.
Pedestrians walk on the wrong side of the road for kilometres to stay out of the leaking mess. In some places, the sewage is so deep that even motorists have to drive on the wrong side of the road because they cannot see whether there are potholes under the leaking waste.
“We just don’t know what to do anymore. We have reported it so many times to the municipality but the problems are just not sorted out,” complains one of the residents, David Rapule.
According to Rapule and other residents, municipal workers sometimes come out to open some of the manholes, but the sewage starts leaking again within hours.
Although municipal workers did open some of the manholes on the morning of January 16, sewage was still streaming down the street a few hours later. “They left the manhole with the biggest leak,” says Rapule.
Some residents speculate that the serious sewage problems in this particular area might stem from the fact that the municipality previously connected a sewerage pipe to Kokosi Ext 4 directly onto the network of Ext 1, instead of laying new bigger pipes for this purpose.
Although a municipal contractor worked in the veld behind this problem area about a year ago, the problems were never solved.
The Herald contacted the Merafong City Local Municipality’s marketing and communications manager, Temba Fezani, about the problems, but no response was received.
The municipality said last year that the problems stem from sand in the manholes and that the manholes will be replaced.