Maxie Badenhorst, ward 3 councillor, Matjhabeng:
Service delivery in Matjhabeng is but a pipe dream. It has now been four weeks since refuse was removed in Hennenman, five days without water in Riebeeckstad, Hennenman, Phomolong, and Mmamahabne, and when you complain, you only get excuses.
The question is asked: How can any resident who has not received a service be expected to pay for that service? General workers who have to collect refuse have been sitting around, earning their full salary, while the municipality is sorting out the acting positions of the drivers of the refuse removal trucks. No interim measures were put in place to ensure that service delivery continues while this process is taking place, and all this is due to the incompetence of the ANC-led administration of the Matjhabeng Municipality. One does not expect the chief of staff in the mayor’s office to inform a councillor that the community must be patient; they are attending to the problem. For how long do they expect residents to be patient – another month, two, three, forever? We are paying for a service we are not getting.
With regards to our water situation, how many times do residents have to go without water for days on end? This is a continual problem that occurs every second month, leaving residents in the terrible predicament of having to buy water at a very high cost.
When the mayor’s office was asked to assist residents with water tankers, the councillor was informed that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had withdrawn their assistance and it was difficult to contract private companies to assist. No planning, no assistance, only excuses and no permanent solutions.
Heavy-duty vehicles are taking over the streets of Hennenman, and since a complaint was lodged in May 2021 about the situation, it has escalated into a serious problem, and to date no response has been received from the powers that be, despite several follow-up emails and telephone calls, the last of which was on 1 November.
On 14 November, a question was addressed to council with the hope of receiving a response on 29 November at the next ordinary council sitting in this regard.
The overtime issue is still a nightmare, and when water leakages or power outages occur over the weekend, it takes hours to get the director, who is usually next to the soccer field, to give approval for overtime resulting in the loss of thousands of litres of water going to waste. Residents who are on life-support machines have to buy fuel on top of the fuel they already have to buy for loadshedding to keep their generators running.
It has already been suggested several times in the past that a shift system should be put in place to curb unnecessary and abusive overtime, yet this suggestion has not even been considered.
Residents should realise that the future of their towns and the country lies solely in their own hands.
