Emfuleni
Living in filth part 1: the health hazard that is Emfuleni's Boitumelo township
For almost 25 years, Boitumelo residents have dealt with houses drenched in sewage water. They don't feel close to a solution.
Emfuleni is home to around 700,000 people with an unemployment rate of about 70%. The ANC denies that it is to blame for the state of the municipality even though it’s been in power there since 1994.
Residents and rate payers say they feel the effects of the broken municipality every day with a lack of basic service delivery and a sense that elected officials don't care enough to even try.
The provincial government said it will be spending money to assist the community with service delivery and to better manage their finances, but it won’t be paying the bills for them.
Various communities have been without electricity since Tuesday after a fire damaged a transformer at the Duncanville substation.
A 54-hour maintenance project was under way, but Rand water said there had been minimal disruption.
The commission says it has warned the company to observe the law when its staff carry out their duties.
Reverend Gift Moerane, who was inaugurated on Thursday, says he is aware of the massive service delivery challenges that the people of Emfuleni are facing.
MMC for finance Robert Thema has since been appointed to act as mayor in the interim.
Eyewitness News has seen letters written to Khawe by the ANC’s Sedibeng region last month, which Khawe reports to as mayor, calling for him to resign with immediate effect.
The SANDF is concluding a memorandum of understanding with the municipality before being deployed.
Outside Lebohang Secondary School, large piles of rubbish are strewn across the street infused in puddles of raw sewage. A breeding ground for water borne diseases.
For years now, residents in the township and surrounding areas have had to contend with persistent environmental problems, including raw sewage seeping through homes, schools and cemeteries.
On Monday, Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced the decision, saying that the metro is cash-strapped and failing to provide services.
The municipality failed to honour its agreement with the utility on Friday, only paying 88% of its R200 million bill, resulting in water being cut off to residents.
Water and Sanitation Spokesperson Sputnik Ratau says the Emfuleni Municipality had fallen behind with its water bill repayment. This led to water cuts in some areas.
Several communities, including Palm Springs, Lakeside and Evaton, have been without water since Friday.
For days now residents have been without water as the municipality failed to honour its debt last month.
Mayor Jacob Khawe has met with Rand Water to discuss how best to settle the debt owed to the water board which now runs into the billions of rands.