Ga-Rankuwa residents have shut down a local clinic during a service delivery protest.
They took to the streets on Wednesday, barricaded roads with rocks, tree branches and burning tyres saying they had had enough of the ongoing problems in zones 6 and 3.
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Community leader Mpho Kobue said residents were unhappy about a drain in front of the clinic, which had been leaking sewage for “a while” now.
“This drain was reported last year, but until today, it has still not been fixed. So we decided to shut down the clinic and the department of arts and culture building across the road,” said Kobue.
Residents delivered a memorandum of their demands, giving the Tshwane metro seven days to respond.
“If they do not address our issues, we will shut down all key buildings in the community,” he said.
Another resident, Piet Mamabolo said poor service delivery negatively affected their children’s health.
After the last protest, the metro unblocked some sewers.
MMC for infrastructure Darryl Moss said the long-term solution was for the city to replace the old sewers.
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“We must ensure existing sewerage infrastructure can cope with residents’ needs,” said Moss.
He said many of the sewers in Ga-Rankuwa were old, badly designed and had become almost permanently blocked.
“Money was not made available to carry out maintenance work and upgrades under the previous administration,” said Moss.
“A mere four percent was allocated for preventative maintenance of water infrastructure.”
“Poor political leadership and financial management of the past has put considerable strain on the city’s ability to restore the services our people need,” he said.
“The city will, in the interim, appoint cooperatives to clear the blocked sewers. These cooperatives should begin work soon.”
“In the current financial year, R5 million has been allocated to this project. The technology used will be trenchless, meaning that very little digging is required and pipe laying can proceed at a rapid rate.”
He apologised to the residents for the inconvenience caused.
“We can assure the residents that we are doing everything we can.”
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