According to several sources, they have not received any paraffin since the day of the elections. There is a strong feeling in the community that there is corruption involved.

The Ward 20 baipei community (squatters) says they have not heard a single word from the council or the ANC ward councillor explaining why the provision of this basic necessity has suddenly stopped. The community in limbo believes there is no longer a need for them as the local government elections are now a thing of the past. They say it was nothing more than an electioneering exercise and a ploy to secure votes for the ANC.

According to Kedibone Maponopono, the community depends on the paraffin for cooking, lighting and heating their domestic bath water.

‘Two litres of paraffin costs us R24 and only lasts a day. As we are unemployed, we hoped that the municipality would help us like they promised. Now, we have to go gather tree branches like our great-grandmothers used to do in the olden days,’ she said. Another resident is using candles but says they are not safe and often lead to shack fires.

Tseko Noncezo says they only saw their ward councillor’s face on the poles during the elections and only met the volunteers during the door-to-door election campaigns.

The community believes they are being throttled and denied service delivery because there is a perception that they are EFF members. Nthabeleng says this is wrong and undemocratic. ‘Aren’t they supposed to assist all community members, regardless of your political affiliation? How do they know we are all EFF members? Isn’t your vote supposed to be secret?’ she asked.

The former ward councillor, Stone Mahlabe, says there is a simple solution to this – the municipality should use the money left over from the mayoral inauguration. ‘They say only about R200 000 was used of the R1 million budgeted for the celebrations. They should use that money to assist the community with paraffin.’

Mahlabe added that the councillor is useless. ‘If you are a leader of the people, you do not choose sides and only serve selected members of the community.

‘I may not be part of the council anymore but I will continue to assist the people in any way possible. Until this day, we still do not know how much was budgeted for the paraffin. This project is supposed to run for three years – there has to be some corruption involved,’ he said.

The chief communications officer of NW 405, Jeanette Tshite, speaking on behalf of Eddie Modiakgotla, the manager in the speaker’s office, says it is true that members of the community last received their issue of paraffin in July.

‘Their turn to receive their next order is in November 2016,’ she said.

Tshite failed to give reasons why the distribution of paraffin to the residents was stopped. She also did not respond to the allegations that the ward councillor had not convened any meeting with the residents since the local government elections.

She did not shed light on when the residents would be relocated to the new stands as promised by the municipality and, lastly, she also ignored the residents’ claims that the lack of service delivery is directly related to the perception that the area is an EFF stronghold.