Bethal is nou lank genoeg as die ongewenste stiefkind behandel. Die VF Plus gaan hierdie kwessie na die provinsiale departement van samewerkende regering verwys vir ondersoek en om sodoende aanspreeklikheid by die munisipaliteit af te dwing.

The election of Cllr. Sekhonde follows a vacancy created by the passing of late Cllr. Mangaliso Joshua Nkosi in July 2020. In her acceptance speech as the new elected Speaker of Council, Cllr. Sekhonde appreciated the confidence and responsibility bestowed upon her to provide political and administrative leadership to Council.

GSDM touted that the tankers handed over culminated in an amount of R10.3 million, which equates to approximately R1.4 million per tanker. This has already raised eyebrows, and stirred up a hornet’s nest, as similar tankers can be procured for as little as R450 000 each, if working on a tight budget. Residents bemoaned this fact, and claims that the prices of these tankers have been grossly overinflated.

The relevant department has, however, failed to replace or reinstall the hydrant in its place of origin, instead opting to leave the worksite as it, not even returning the paving stones to its place. Ironically, the now defunct hydrant is but a few hundred meters away from the fire brigade’s building.

The MLM communication department simply stated that “the installation of new sewer pipeline near Global Filling Station is progressing very well”.

The stress and frustration of the endless rotational load shedding in Bethal and eMzinoni is reaching breaking point, and residents are demanding answers as to why Notified Maximum Demand (NMD) issue was not attended to in a timely and effective manner. Instead, GMM dragged their feet for months on end, much like Msukaligwa Local Municipality is doing at the moment.

Govan Mbeki Local Municipality, which comprises Bethal, Charl Cilliers, Embalenhle, Evander, Kinross, Leandra, Secunda and Trichardt, has become unmanageable due to the great number of towns that have to be provided with services by this municipality.

Aside from the immense health risks this sewage overflow poses, the issue is further aggravated by the fact that the surrounding businesses suffer loss in clientele due to the constant, unbearable stench that lingers in the air, as one of the overflows is but mere meters from their shopfronts. At the time of going to print, both GSDM and MLM once again ignored the enquiry submitted

According to MLM, higher demand due to the winter cold, coupled with illegal connections leads to load reduction implementation. This is also the root of the unexpected outages, according to MLM. Several enquiries as to what the long term plan for the recovery of the system is, remains a mystery, and replies from MLM circumvents direct answer relating to an employable plan of action. MLM states that theft and vandalism is also a major contributor to unplanned outages.

On previous occasions, MLM stated that residents should contact the call centre to report such incidents. However, the inefficiency of the call centre, coupled with the lackluster response time from municipal departments have made this statement all but redundant.

Complaints included the crime rate in Sun City, as well as alleged service delivery issues.

“We had to make a decision on which roads need to be maintained and patched up as soon as possible, unfortunately not all the roads can be repaired. We can’t maintain all the roads, it is impossible, and funding is also a problem. We try to patch as many holes as possible, but there is just no way that some can again be repaired, because the roads are in poor condition,” Bekker stated.