RESIDENTS feel the ruling party doesn't cater for their basic needs.
This was voiced during a visit by African National Congress (ANC) president Cyril Ramaphosa at Zandspruit in Honeydew, north of Joburg on Saturday, 13 April.
The president was there as part of the ANC's campaign. Residents complained that the government had neglected them for a very long time.
Christina Sibanda from Transit Camp section said water was a basic need that everyone should have access to.
“We don't have water in our houses. We have to go to the main road to get water. It's far from our shacks, but there's nothing we can do,” she said.
She said they used bucket system toilets because there wasn't any water for flushing toilets.
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Christina said her 10-year-old son was scared to use their bucket toilet and would rather walk a long distance to his aunt’s house, in another section, because there's a flushing toilet there.
“He's seriously scared of it. I don’t know what would happen if he had a runny tummy at night because the area is not safe,” she said.
She pleaded with the government to build her a house.
“I've been waiting for an RDP house since 2003. I'm renting the shack that I stay in. Every month mastandi wants his money. If the government had given me the house, I'd be using the rent money to feed my family and buy them clothes,” she said.
Israel Nemasisi said he had been renting a shack since he moved to the kasi 21 years ago.
“There's no development here. Water is a huge problem. Sometimes we go for days without water. The same with electricity. If it's windy our electricity goes off,” he said.
ANC ward councillor David Mangena admitted that Zandspruit has problems with service delivery but outlined projects which aim to lessen the burden on residents.
“This is an informal settlement. Service delivery is slow. But things are starting to change because we have 701 service stands that are for the people of Zandspruit. They're only 10% away from being completed. We're also building a school in Cosmo City and extending Beyers Naude Drive. These projects at least minimise unemployment,” he said.
Mangena said there was another project in the pipeline to eradicate the bucket system.
“I'm pleading with the community to stop blocking projects because if they do that they are stopping development,” he said.
