Video: Cry beloved eMalahleni

Ask any resident in Emalahleni what they think about the state of their city and you are sure to get a laundry list of complaints.

The place of coal … One should approach the demographic board and request that the Nguni name for place of coal, Emalahleni, be changed to the Zulu word for dump ‘Indawoyezibi’.

“It is sad that Emalahleni municipality is not groomed and kept clean and safe. The former Witbank, now known as eMalahleni, is more than 100 years old. It was proclaimed a town in 1903 and became a municipality in 1914. It is the energy centre of South Africa and the focal point of Africa’s largest coalfields and power stations. Instead of being proud of our city, we shy away form conversation when others ask where we come from. I am not going to lie and say I live in this city with the most beautiful sunsets in the Highveld, if in fact I live in the middle of a rubbish dump,” said Mr John Cornish, a resident of eMalahleni for more than 20 years.

WITBANK NEWS decided to test Cornish’s statement and took a Sunday afternoon drive to see if they could capture the beauty of this once thriving city.

Instead they returned back with more photos portraying a city crying out for help.

As one enters the city from the Kriel/Bethal road the grass is neatly cut and trees trimmed. But it ends there.

Overgrown pavements, smelly heaps of rubbish that has not been collected for weeks, leaking water meters wasting thousands of liters of this precious commodity, public parks strewn with litter, sewerage streaming out of manholes and streetlights burning in broad daylight is the signature of neglect because little maintenance is done.

The municipality argues that Eskom takes a huge gulp out of their bank account and they also blame residents for not paying their municipal accounts.

Therefore cleaning up ‘Indawoyezibi’ is last on the municipality’s list of priorities.

The issues were relayed to the municipality, but by the time going to press there was no comment from them.