When it comes to provision of services, residents of Ohrigstad say the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM) and the Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM) seem to have forgotten about them.

Situated in Ward 1 of the FTLM, Ohrigstad is known as the gateway to the Panorama Route due to its close proximity to natural wonders like God’s Window, the Blyde River Canyon and Bourke’s Luck Potholes.

“Once a clean, tidy town, now it looks like a dumpsite,” said one local, Fabian Naudé.

Residents claim they have been sidelined and are facing service delivery challenges, including uncollected refuse, leaking sewer pipes, water shortages, and electricity faults.

“In recent weeks, the FTLM cleaners have only collected and cleaned at the main entrance of the town and the pavement next to the municipal satellite offices. The town is filthy, with leaking pipes that frequently cause power failures. These problems remain for weeks with nobody from the municipality addressing them. We pay rates but we are consistently without water,” added Naudé.

Residents claimed that reporting water issues to relevant authorities yields no response. Similar water challenges have reportedly been plaguing Burgersfort CBD, which is located in the FTLM’s Ward 18. The Burgersfort community last week issued an official report, addressed to the relevant authorities and titled, ‘Water supply failure and sewage spillage crisis in Burgersfort’.

“This report serves to formally notify the relevant authorities of a developing humanitarian and public health crisis in Burgersfort,” stated the report. “Residents in several areas have been without reliable access to clean drinking water for approximately three weeks. In areas where water is intermittently available, it is reported to be discoloured, dirty, and foul-smelling.”

The report noted that certain residential areas have reportedly been without water for up to three weeks and criticised the SDM’s failure to deploy water tankers, effectively denying those in the affected areas of a basic human right. It further pointed out that sewage spillages are affecting public roads and residential areas, posing a serious health risk to the community.

“The poor sanitation in Burgersfort affects all, just last week, community members visiting the Burgersfort SAPS and the Burgersfort Regional Court were forced to walk and drive through sewage spillage inside the Burgersfort SAPS premises. This was due to a faulty manhole in Burger Street, adjacent to the SAPS offices. The sewage spill impacted school children as the run-off flowed towards the main entrance of a local primary school. Learners were forced to wait for transport within close proximity to the contaminated water. This posed a direct health risk to the minors.”

Community members said water and sanitation in both towns is controlled by the SDM and not the local municipality.

“We urge the Limpopo government to give the water powers to the FTLM. They are closer to the communities than the SDM, whose main offices are in Groblersdal, far from the people,” said Burgersfort resident Lefa Makola.

Steelburger/Lydenburg News forwarded queries to SDM spokesperson Lemson Morapjane as well as his counterpart at the FTLM, Mahlako Komane. Neither had responded at the time of going to press.