Opinion and Anlysis

TSWAING MUNICIPALITY ROTTEN, RESIDENTS HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO LIVE WITH STENCH OF FAECES

Tswaing: Batho Pele Party (BPP) has written to the Human Rights Commission of South Africa (SAHRC) after conducting an oversight visit to Sannieshof and Ottosdal. The oversight comes after BPP was alerted to the desperate situation that these communities have to endure.

The residents of Agisanang and Letsopa townships in Tswaing Local Municipality, NW have had no choice but to live with the unbearable stench of faeces for over five years.  Whiles you make your way around these townships there is a possibility that when you turn around a random corner you will be confronted by a street submerged in sewer accompanied with an awful stench of human waste; that is how widespread sewage spills are.

The worst-affected residential areas with major environmental and health concerns are Ditshoswane informal settlement and Agisanang in Sannieshof. The sewer is growing into a swamp of human waste and pollution. This will likely be the source of air and water borne diseases when temperatures increase due to the upcoming summer season. SAHRC has confirmed that it will be investigated the matter and as BPP we are hopeful that the people of Agisanang and Letsopa will find redress to this protruded problem; for now, our hope rests with SAHRC to intervene as this is a gross violation of the rights of the community who have been denied access to adequate and proper sanitation.

It is clear that the council of Tswaing Local Municipality, down to the portfolio committee responsible and administration lack the leadership and political will to turn the situation around because no effort has been made to address the matter; clearly pointing out that it was never a mistake for the MEC of Cooperative Governance, MEC Cwaile, to call for the disbandment of this municipality.