From zero maintenance to total destruction

Cape Town - A Fin24 user laments the state of his hometown of Vereeniging that, with three rivers running through it, could have easily be a major tourist attraction.

Vereeniging is part of Gauteng’s Emfuleni Local Municipality in the Vaal Triangle. It was in the news recently, after it was reported that the municipal manager earns R200 000 a year more than President Jacob Zuma, according to City Press.

Sam Shabalala (52) pockets R2.8m each year, making him South Africa’s most well-paid municipal manager. The municipality, which includes Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark, services 722 000 residents and has a budget of R3.9bn.

Fin24 user Greer da Cruz writes:

“It really pains me to write this letter, because believe it or not, I actually love my town, Vereeniging in the Vaal area. I was born and bred here. But today I look around and think 'hellhole' because there is no other word to describe it.

SEE GALLERY: Vereeniging, a place of dirt and litter

We, in the Vaal area are fortunate to have not one, but three rivers running through our town and suburbs.  Anywhere else in the world that would be a major tourist attraction - but in Vereeniging it is a filthy, dirty area of ill repute.

It's true, some people try to enjoy Vosloo Park in the summer months, especially the fisherman. They sit amongst the litter and broken bottles trying to enjoy some of the peace and tranquility it is supposed to convey.  Cars roam all over what's left of the grass and the children have to play in the dirt.  This used to be a park. A park where people could braai. You could not drive all over the place, you had to park and walk.  Children could play on the swings and slides and one could walk dogs. How have we allowed our standards to drop so low that this shoddy excuse for a lifestyle has become acceptable?

Three Rivers in Vereeniging shown below:



In Vanderbijlpark, there are public parks, in Meyerton there are public parks, and in Johannnesburg you have Zoo Lake, the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo, to name a few places where one can sit and enjoy a picnic on the weekend.

Try to walk around the suburbs. It appears that driving down Dee Drive and throwing your glass bottles out the window has become a sport for the sick and depraved.  People are now dumping their garbage in the storm water drain in the veld on the corner of Golf and Brandmuller. The municipality arrived and half chopped down the trees along the river bank.  By half chopped, I mean they sawed through half the trunk, poisoned the tree and left it standing.  I assume they want this to fall on someone's head or car at a later stage?

Walking around here becomes a game of dodge the glass and used condoms. The 'skate bowl' is in a pitiful state of disrepair - our children could use this, but instead it stands as testament to the uselessness of Emfuleni Municipality, and their total bias attitude towards keeping Vanderbijlpark up to scratch and completely forgetting about Vereeniging, Three Rivers and surrounds - although financially Three Rivers keeps the whole bang shoot ticking over.

The subway is a complete disaster and apparently we have no public works department anymore. Rhodes Avenue was dug up and a huge hole and a pile of sand remained a feature of the middle of the road for months. The same has now happened in Union Street. When the job is finally completed, the road is replaced in a hap hazard manner with no one paying attention to a little thing called compaction, so after the first rains the area will collapse leaving rim breaking ditches behind.  As evidenced in Golf Road just past Chasers - and my driveway that the municipality dug up. My friend's car fell in and had to be towed out.  It has also just happened at the traffic light in General Hertzog where the Euro Spar is.

The corner of Assegai Street and Klip River Drive (behind Glasfit) appears to have become a dumping ground for building rubble. General Hertzog has been left in an incomplete mess; my heart goes out to the people living there.  Who is responsible for this catastrophic failure of a project?  Speaking of failure, look at the development on the corner of Golf and Brandmuller:  68 units of visual repulsion that no one wants to buy.  



SEE GALLERY: Vereeniging, a place of dirt and litter

The whole bundle of horror is now going up for auction. How was this allowed to happen on a stand which is below the flood line and in an area where the geriatric infrastructure cannot cope with the existing residents.  There are 17 units next door to me, more being built further down the road and this is all in one street. This rampant development without concurrent improvements in roads, storm water drains and sewage systems is a recipe for only one thing - the sewer pit in which we now live.

Don't even get me started on potholes all over our roads, and street lights that either never work or burn 24 hours a day. I have not had a working street light outside my house in over four years. Now the rest of Golf Road is out too. Can I take four years to pay my municipal account? I have asked on four separate occasions for the parks department to prune the magnificent Oak trees outside my house since November last year, before they fall over when the rain comes. We lost three trees last year in Golf Road alone - just because no one cares.  These trees are well over 40 years old.  (We have now paid a private contractor a small fortune to prune these trees; can I deduct this from my municipal bill?)

Don't know if anyone has noticed, but there are barely any road markings on our roads. I have been driving here for over 20 years, but it only came to my attention when my son passed his learners license. For a learner driver, this area is a death trap.  You are so busy dodging pot holes that you forget to dodge cars. One has no idea when or where to stop for a stop street or even if it is a stop street.  Outside Tiger Wheel Tyre in Nile Drive there is a traffic light that never works and no road markings. Some people stop in the middle of the robot, some go straight through, others stop in the correct area, which by the way is before the turn off to Zenex garage.  

Pedestrian crossings are never adhered to either outside Riversquare or the circle outside Checkers. Do you know that in Europe if a pedestrian approaches a curb the traffic stops, anywhere on the road. In South Africa, pedestrians are treated like skittles. A courteous driver is likely to be rear ended if he stops at a pedestrian crossing.

What happened at Dickinson Park? Another colossal waste of resources and incomplete project. A huge sign was erected, paving was put in at vast cost, a stage was built and then - NOTHING. Yet again. Now that park stands derelict, the grass is growing over the paving - total disaster.

Over the years I have become complacent enough to accept the zero maintenance policy of Emfuleni as normal. But now we have moved from a policy of zero maintenance to total destruction of our infrastructure. It is criminal that the municipal manager is obviously getting a large pay check every month for complete dereliction of duty.

If we think it is bad in Three Rivers, can you imagine what Sebokeng, Sharpeville and Boipatong are like. Collecting our garbage once a week and reading the meter (believe it or not, mine does get read) once a month does not mark the beginning and end of the municipality's responsibility to its residents regarding service delivery.  Look at our pavements, up General Hertzog, our main road, outside Euro Spar - it's a mess.

As residents of Emfuleni we need to stand together to force the Municipal Manager to start performing or get someone who can do the job and actually manage a Municipality."

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