WATCH: Oakdene residents endure months of sewage stench amid illegal farming
Locals blame vagrants for deliberately breaking sewage lines to fertilize crops, while authorities struggle to enforce action.
For the past several months, residents of Oakdene have been complaining about a sewage smell in the suburb emanating from a stream that runs through the area.
It runs through abandoned land where vagrants plant their crops and others use it as a dumping site.
This property has been a problem for several years with it being the subject of land invasions and the owner allegedly being a foreign national who is no longer in the country.
The residents complain about illegal residents that break the sewage lines with rocks so that it can overflow into their crops and grow them.
Ward 56 Clr Micheal Crichton said that he has submitted a complaint to the Joburg Water and Sanitation Department, which is responsible for the sewage infrastructure.
@comaro.chronicle Ward 56 Clr Micheal Crichton said that he has submitted a complaint to the Joburg Water and Sanitation Department, which is responsible for the sewage infrastructure. “Joburg Water called me to a site meeting around October last year where I met them at the infamous former driving range that is located along Rifle Range Road, Rosettenville Ext, which borders parts of Oakdene, Townsview and Rosettenville. This property has been a problem for several years with it being the subject of land invasions,” Crichton said. Read more on comarochronicle.co.za
“Joburg Water called me to a site meeting around October last year where I met them at the infamous former driving range that is located along Rifle Range Road, Rosettenville Ext, which borders parts of Oakdene, Townsview and Rosettenville. This property has been a problem for several years with it being the subject of land invasions,” Crichton said.
Allegedly, it has emerged that a Close Corporation called Toymed CC now owns this property.
Upon conducting the site visit, Joburg Water showed Crichton several illegal farmers growing crops on the land.
“What made it even more disturbing is that for them to fertilise and water the crops, they are deliberately breaking the sewage lines with rocks so that it can overflow into their crops, which it does, and then subsequently runs into the streams,” he said.
Furthermore, Crichton said that the reason for Joburg Water showing this to him is because every time they receive complaints about the sewage smells they unblock these lines only for the farmers to block them again.
@comaro.chronicle For the past several months, residents of Oakdene have been complaining about a sewage smell in the suburb emanating from a stream that runs through the area. It runs through abandoned land where vagrants plant their crops and others use it as a dumping site. This property has been a problem for several years with it being the subject of land invasions and the owner allegedly being a foreign national who is no longer in the country. Read more on comarochronicle.co.za
“I then asked them why they are not issuing these people with fines for tampering with the infrastructure. They informed me that they can’t issue a fine to a vagrant,” he added.
Following the dealings with Joburg Water, Crichton referred the matter to Group Forensics and Investigation Services (GFIS) for investigations. They concluded that it should be referred to Environmental Health, as well as the city’s and province’s environmental departments.
Crichton then wrote to the acting city manager, Tshepo Makola, requesting his intervention in this matter. Makola then referred the matter to the city’s acting COO Helen Botes who referred the matter back to Joburg Water. They responded that they had previously unblocked the sewage line, only for the farmers to block it again once they had left.
