Dichoeung poor service delivery concerns arises
Dichoeung
Disgruntled residents of Dichoeung Village in Jane Furse, described their poor service delivery in their area as a living hell, with a serious water scarcity and poor standard of roads topping their list.
The community, under Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality (MLM) Ward 18, states that they have been pleading with the municipality for many years to upgrade their internal roads.
They indicated that their internal roads were never upgraded since the dawn of democracy and are worsening because they are not even maintained.
The concerned community highlighted Sekhukhune District Municipality’s (SDM) failure to supply clean drinkable water as a denial of basic human right.
They said that the struggle of lack of drinkable water supply is caused by perceptions of corruption, poor management of water infrastructure, lack of resources for upgrades and maintenance from the district municipality.
A community leader, Simon Maduane, said residents were neglected many times after raising poor service delivery concerns with relevant government authorities.
“Our main roads are in a deteriorating state and the local municipality is taking no action to upgrade them, it is awful. We convened several meetings with the mayor so that our pleas could be addressed and nothing happened,” he said.
Maduane described the community’s water shortage crisis as an endless struggle that subject them to buy water from those who own boreholes in their yards or turn to obtain drinking water from nearest rivers and wells. The situation becomes worse in winter because the only water sources dry up.
“From back then, residents used to have clean water from a reservoir that was constructed through community contributions. Things changed when Sekhukhune District Municipality took over the water authority in the village five years ago. That is when the water struggle started without any permanent solution,” he said.
Maduane said he believes the state of water scarcity affects people of all ages in the community including the elderly who cannot push wheelbarrows to fetch water from the alternative sources.
“Some are urged to dig from their pockets to buy water from water carting trucks to survive the struggle having to spend R350-00 to refill a 2000L water storage tank. Many households are living below the poverty line and could not afford to buy water,” he said.
MLM Spokesperson, Thomas Mashabela, promised to respond after investigating the concerns. His response could not reach the publication at the time of going to press. SDM Spokesperson, Lemson Moropjane, could not respond to the paper at the time of going to press.
