Replacing the infrastructure of sewage pipes and expanding sewage and water pipelines for Pretoria will cost more than R10-billion. Some 80% of the budget is earmarked for infrastructure development of new townships.
This came to light in a press interview with the Tshwane metro mayor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, after his delivery of the State of the City address.
On addressing the lack of infrastructure at Zitobeni and Ekangala the mayor said that Atteridgeville and Mamelodi did benefit in this regard from the former Pretoria municipality in the previous dispensation. There was revenue coming in and it was possible to invest in the infrastructure of these townships, this however was not the case with the far northern areas which were part of the homelands and did not have a revenue base to provide proper services.
In the appropriation of the budget the mayor said that notice should be taken that there are now two city’s in one.
”One with an already developed infrastructure and then the areas in the north with an undeveloped infrastructure. In terms of developing the infrastructure and the appropriation of the budget over 80% of it will go to the north because we are trying to equalise the combination of the north and the far east of Bronkhorstpruit, Ekangala and Zitobeni. The underdeveloped infrastructure is a legacy which we inherited and for us to extinguish the disparity in services is going to take us a number of years to get it right,” he said.
Referring to the numerous cases of broken or overflowing sewage pipelines which in the past few months has repeatedly been reported on in the media, Ramokgopa said there are two variables regarding the aging infrastructure which has to be taken into consideration.
“We have been investing over a period of time a lot of capital in the maintenance of the infrastructure. Most of these pipes are made of asbestos and have outlived their usage. Then there is the factor of volume. We have never envisaged that the east of Pretoria will grow at the rate it is growing. It was also never envisaged that the south of Centurion will grow as it did, because it was never in the blueprint of how Pretoria will develop and that black Africans will have the opportunity to stay in affluent areas. Now they are coming in their hundreds and the infrastructure is taking a hammering,” he said.
He said that in the light of the costs involved to address this problem that something like the infrastructure should be included in the presidential strategic investments projects.
”It will cost anything up to more than R10-billion to address all of that. That is money we do not have. That is why say national government should give us the money to address this. But for now, when we receive reports about broken pipes we will attempt to repair it. This is a problem that will stay with us,” he said.
