Home News Service delivery woes infuriate Roshnee residents

Service delivery woes infuriate Roshnee residents

by Zahid Jadwat

Residents of Roshnee embarked on a service delivery protest on Tuesday. [Picture: TimesLIVE]

 

While the country experiences a debilitating spell of rolling blackouts, residents of Roshnee, near Johannesburg, have had enough. A number of residents took to the streets on Tuesday to express dissatisfaction over irregular service delivery by the Emfuleni Local Municipality.

One of the residents, Zainul Saley, did not mince his words when he addressed municipal officials through the media. He said residents have had to take service delivery into their own hands, at their own expense.

“Emfuleni, you have failed the people of the Vaal. You have failed your communities. You have failed the Black townships. You have not delivered anything to anybody. What have you done with the money that was coming to you?” he asked.

 

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Electricity and water woes

Exasperated residents claimed to have been experiencing blackouts for 20 hours per day, or thereabouts. They said pleas to authorities had fallen on deaf ears. That was when they decided to lay rocks on the R82 – the main road from Johannesburg to Vereeniging.

“We as Indians and Coloureds are minorities. Nobody cares about us; nobody thinks about us. They’re giving us loadshedding [for] 20 hours a day while other areas in the same district have no loadshedding. There’s no loadshedding in other areas a minute away from here,” said another resident.

“We have sick people on oxygen here. What do we do with sick people? We can’t keep on venting our frustrations on the streets. Where’s our government? We elected officials to go into government.”

Another resident, Shanice Ferendale, told eNCA, “Our main problem is everytime after loadshedding, our electricity trips. Last week, we were without water as well. We are sick and tired. We want the mayor to come out.”

“The government wants to divide us, but we’re standing together and we’re standing up to say enough is enough.”

Earlier this month, residents had embarked on a protest for the same reason. It appears the issues raised then were left to boil until the latest episode. Residents continued to deal with loadshedding, internal load reduction and, now, infrastructure failure.

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