eMBALENHLE – The community of Ext 18 is seeing their hall turning into a dumbing site, citing that Govan Mbeki Municipality is failing to collect waste.
When Ridge Times visited the area, we found a pile of waste dumped next to the community hall.
Community members told the newspaper the rubbish has been piling up like this for months because the municipality has not been collecting the garbage in the area.
“Our children are at risk of contracting diseases because they play here. It is also sometimes difficult for us to access the hall because of this waste.
Residents said they don’t only blame the municipality, but also themselves because some of them dump animal carcasses and other toxic materials which makes the site more hazardous.
They pleaded with the municipality to fulfill its obligation of rendering the required services. The community wanted to know how can the municipality expect them to pay for services that are not being rendered.
They saw on different communication platforms that the municipality wants them to pay for services, and they wanted to know why GMM has to turn to social media to communicate with the community.
“They came to talk to us when they wanted votes. What is so difficult now?” a resident asked.
“We are still waiting for them to come and account for corruption we heard about on the news, such as the forensic investigation outcome.
“We said long ago that something is not right about our municipality. We heard that others resigned, but then came back and were given new positions while their names appeared in the section 106 investigation report.
“Even our MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs announced that our municipality is under administration (Section 139 (1b)) and said that the Province was taking all the powers and control of this municipality. He disbanded he mayoral committee and left only the speaker.
“Surprisingly last week we heard that the same speaker is now elected as a our new executive mayor.
“When did the administrator’s time end, because we didn’t see or heard if the administrator has arrived,” Mr. Siphesihle Mdluli complained.
“We heard that we have a new speaker out of nowhere, we have been played by politicians here. It is December-time, they want to steal and fill their pockets while we are left with this garbage,” said Mr. Mdluli
The new Govan Mbeki municipal executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma said that the municipality will be launching clean-up campaign as the municipality and their target is illegal dumping areas in all townships. He said as a new mayor he is committed to do things differently although it will take time.
