North residents raise ire over lack of service delivery

Residents of Soshanguve have raised concerns about the “non-existing” service delivery in their area.

A group of block AA residents said they had decided to repair the potholes that have developed in the area themselves as nothing has been done by the council.

Resident Thabo Sibanyoni said picketing, burning tyres, and blocking roads did not have an impact anymore on pushing those in charge to do something about service delivery.

“Nothing works here. Everything is just a mess. We have sewage issues, street lights are not working, some of the roads are unbearable to drive on and people have given up on reporting these issues. Maybe this is the new normal for us.”

Sibanyoni acknowledged that some of the problems were caused by residents in the area, however, local councillors needed to take full responsibility for the lack of services.

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“You have people who simply just do what they want without consequences. We have residents who have the attitude of ‘as long as it does not affect me directly, then I don’t care’.

“On the other hand, we have been complaining about the issue of service delivery for many years, but little to nothing has been done. We have people who are in charge but they are nowhere to be found.”

Councillor Rose Maake said the community should also take some responsibility for illegal dumping happening in the area.

“We clean this place many times, and put up ‘no dumping’ signs, but they will continue dumping in the same area. This is something that is beyond our control because if the community themselves cannot take responsibility then we end up doing the same thing always.

“We do have places where they can dump but they just look for the nearest place and then they just dump there,” Maake said.

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“Residents should be warned not to do illegal dumping because they will be charged. This is our place, so we must take responsibility because illegal dumping will harm our children and will cause all kinds of sicknesses.”

Maake said some of the service delivery delays were caused by the metro being put under administration.

“We were under administration for eight months. The council only resumed now in November. We had a schedule of fixing the street lights, potholes, and other service delivery issues before we were put under administration. At the moment, the schedule has resumed and in early January most of these things will be fixed.”

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