19 May 2021
This video shows the awful state of Bering Street in KwaNobuhle, Kariega (formerly Uitenhage). It was filmed on 17 May.
Pigs walk up and down, scavenging, pissing and shitting. Rubbish collects along the fence on the side of the road. A filthy stream, oozing from blocked drains, runs along the pavement.
Residents say the sewage has been leaking for two weeks, and the municipality service delivery number goes unanswered.
Mzimasi Ncana is on the ward committee: “Blockages happen week after week and month after month, street by street. The entire ward is dominated by bubbling drains, whose sewage attracts pigs.”
Ncana says the infrastructure was installed in the 1960s and is ageing. “There is also a shortage of rubbish bins. That’s why people throw everything away in the street.”
He accuses the municipality of doing nothing with residents’ fault reports. “I am so worried. If it rains heavily we’ll be swimming in sewage,” he said.
Phumlani Mbaba, whose house has leaking sewage in Bering Street, said, “We have been phoning non- stop since last week. Nobody takes our calls.”
Three ward councillors in the area, Lindelwa Qukubana, Siphiwe Plaatjies and Nomsa Booi all criticised the municipality’s call centre for failing to take calls.
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki promised GroundUp that he would follow up. “Meanwhile we are currently experiencing challenges with vandalism and foreign objects thrown into our sanitation system, which leads to blockages and bursts,” he said.