BARBERTON – Residents who had benefited from the people’s housing programme at Extension 14, which also includes the disabled, are forced to live without proper sanitation.
They have been facing this nightmare since 2009 when the project was completed by the Department of Human Settlements and houses were handed over.
They told Mpumalanga News that they had tried several times to engage the Umjindi Local Municipality only to find out it had referred the matter to the Department of Human Settlements. The former municipal manager, Ms Sibongile Mnisi, had said the issue would be addressed.
“We can’t take it anymore. It’s been nearly five years and our people still don’t have proper toilets.
“This year we tried to talk to the newly appointed municipal manager, Mr Pat Msibi and the member of the mayoral committee in technical services, Mr Meshach “Tailor” Nsimbini and they told us the same thing.
“When the project had been completed, we were told by the contractor that it would be difficult to install flushing toilets because there was no connection for sewerage on this site and
the money for installation was returned to the department,” said
Mr Collen Sengwayo, one of the ward committee members. “How long are we going to live like this? How long are our leaders going to ignore our problems?” asked Sengwayo.
The problems are even worse for the disabled. It also came to light that no water had been laid onto the yards.
Ms Gloria Msibi said she was over the moon when she discovered she was one of the beneficiaries, and couldn’t wait to move into her beautiful house, only to find there was no toilet. I managed to save money and install one.
“Now I’m forced to pay people R10 for 25 litres or R5 for five litres of water since it’s difficult for me to collect it because of my condition. If they installed taps in our yards and connected the toilets, life will be much better,” she explained.
Mpumalanga News contacted the department to get its side of the story and spokesman Mr Freddie Ngobe had this to say, “The department allocated 100 People’s Housing Programme at Umjindi Local Municipality in 2007, which was successfully completed in 2009. At the time of construction, the municipality had not installed bulk services (sewer and water services); hence the connections to the houses were not done. “The municipality has since confirmed the installation of bulk services in 2013 and the department will subsequently allocate budget to do the connections in 2014.”
