Residents from Gubevu Street at Kosovo informal settlement in Samora Machel are concerned about their health due to blocked drains and stormwater pipes.
Incensed residents claim they have been dealing with the problem for more than five months and some families have been forced to vacate their shacks.
The residents are accusing the municipality of abandoning them.
Resident Momelezi Mtambeka described the area as the dirtiest area in the province if not in the entire country.
He said provincial authorities should be ashamed for bragging about being the most beautiful town in the world while there are people who stay under such conditions.
“Many people left their shacks because of the sewage that is stuck in front of their houses. Some people have skin rash while the children have ringworms. Others are suffering with diarrhoea. The whole area stinks,” he said.
Mtambeka stated that residents previously barricaded the road with tyres for motorists not to drive through area. She urged the City to speed up the process to clean-up the area.
“What we want is for the City to relocate people to the new houses or allocate them the serviced sites,” he said.
A Gayanawe shop owner, who identified himself as Mohammed, said the dirty water has a negative impact on his business. He said the majority of his customers are no longer coming to the shop because of the stink and dirty water outside. He stated that he even struggles to put the stock inside the shop.“I can’t even stand outside of the shop because of the sewage which is right in front of it. I don’t know what causes the sewage to get stuck here,” said Mohammed.
Ward 88 councillor Zukisani Sophazi described the issue of the sewage at Gubevu Street as very complicated. He said the relevant municipal departments know about it.
“I had meetings with various departments about the issue. We found that some water is coming from the pond, other water from the washing machines and also the people who are illegally connecting water to the water pipes to their shacks. The City pumps the water everyday but it come back again the following day,” said Sophazi, adding that the City is looking for a permanent solution.
Explaining the issue of housing, Sophazi said there is a housing project that is under construction at Woodlands in Mitchell’s Plain which is expected to cater for some of the Kosovo residents.
“At least 217 beneficiaries from Kosovo are expected to be relocated to the new houses when they are done,” he said, but didn’t specify when they are going to be relocated.