Central SA
Sewage spillage still an issue in Mangaung─── LUCKY NKUYANE 11:07 Fri, 16 Dec 2022
Issues of service delivery - including raw sewage spillages - continue to trouble the Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metro municipality.
This, despite the Metro being put under national government administration.
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On Wednesday the Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela, accompanied by the Director General (DG) in her office, Kopung Ralikontsane, went on an oversight visit to Bochabela Location in Bloemfontein - following complaints of raw sewage spillages.
Ntombela says the community has been plagued by a collapsed sewer system that left residents living under hazardous health conditions for over twelve months.
Ntombela says through the District Development Model (DDM) government across its three spheres will join hands to negate any service delivery challenges that disrupt the lives of the people.
In October 2022, the metro' Acting Municipality Manager (ACM), Tebogo Motlashuping, revealed that decaying infrastructure which had been neglected for years has since led to, among others, massive sewage spillages across towns in the Metro.
ALSO READ: Mangaung Metro’s infrastructure decaying after neglect
"I'm pleased to announce that after the collective effort of both my office and the municipality the situation that had been prevailing for such a long time has been arrested. However, it must be said, our people deserve better. It should not take such interventions for communities to have their problems addressed," Ntombela adds.
In June 2022 the Auditor-General, Tsakani Maluleke, said the Metro spent less than 2% of its infrastructure budget on repairs and maintenance.
ALSO READ: AG exposes Mangaung’s failed infrastructure maintenance
"We have a Constitutional responsibility to ensure our people are consistent recipients of service delivery in its diverse forms. We dare not subject our people to similar conditions or any circumstances that mirror the conditions that the community of Bochabela have been subjected to. I would also like to appreciate officials from my intervention directorate for bringing this appalling situation that I witnessed to my attention," Ntombela further adds.
