Empty promises anger KwaDabeka residents

KWADABEKA A informal settlement residents marched to the housing department on Monday morning complaining about the lack of service delivery in the area. Angry residents said they were tired of 20 years of empty promises.

One of the residents (who wished to remain anonymous) said that to this day, the government has not delivered on the promises to provide them with houses, water, electricity and appropriate sanitation facilities. “It is such a shame that we are still using longdrop pits toilets.

“Instead of providing us with taps in our yards, they have put in standpipes in the roads.”

The resident said they have have had numerous meetings with officials from the eThekwini Municipality and nothing has come of them.

“Every single meeting, we are told the same story that we were told 10 years ago. The place we live is in such a terrible state – there are no passages that we can use to walk past other houses.

“Recently, we had a funeral and men who were carrying a coffin tripped and fell with the corpse because of the terrible area,” he said.

Residents said they need someone who will give them answers. “We were told to pay R400 so that we can have electricity, which we did, although we were promised free electricity.

“The electricity was connected to only few houses and most of us are still living in the dark,” added a resident.

Ward 22 councillor, Sifiso Zungu, said they had a meeting with the community recently where there were engineers, surveyors and all the relevant people present, who have been appointed to design plans and draw a map to upgrade the area.

“At the meeting, we engaged with people about the progress as at the end of this month. Plans are going to be sent to various departments, which will be involved in upgrading that area – the housing, roads, water and electricity departments.

“The residents feel that the process is taking too long, which is the reason they are marching today. They did inform us about the march as they wanted the process to be quicker.”

Zungu said the project is taking too long because of the terrible condition of the area in question. “The plans to build houses in that area failed when houses were being built in KwaDabeka.

“Surveyors and engineers had to find a way to make the area safe for building houses and installing sewage pipes and electrical cables.

“People need to understand that it takes longer to plan development in the area that they already occupy than an empty space,” said Zungu.