Danville residents in Mahikeng, North West, claim they have been ignored and do not have access to sufficient services or employment opportunities.
The community recently embarked on service delivery protests over poor roads and unreliable electricity and water supplies in the area.
They claim that the lack of development and opportunities has also led to a sharp rise in crime, drug use, and unemployment in the region.
Frustrations reached boiling point
Danville descended into chaos, as the community’s frustrations reached boiling point. From pothole-riddled roads to high unemployment and crime, the list of concerns raised by residents is endless.
“Our potholes are very deep. Our cars can’t even drive on the roads. Now we use gravel roads to go fetch our kids at school. Where I stay there is a bush there. It is very ugly. They don’t clean, the streets there is just mud, there is no tarred road, there is nothing there.”
More than 2% of Mahikeng’s population is coloured and most of them live in Danville. Residents complain that the government has neglected their area and they are treated like second-class citizens.
“When it comes to the coloured people, they don’t care about us. We are left behind with everything…the city council cannot even service these roads here that we standing on. We are tired that we are not being considered as citizens of South Africa.”
Meanwhile, Mahikeng local municipality has denied claims of marginalization of Danville residents. The representative of the city council Johnny Nkoan says, “It is not true that Mahikeng local municipality is marginalising the people of Danville.”
As the government of the people we always try our level best to provide services to our people in an equal and fair manner. We patch potholes but on this one currently, we were experiencing a challenge with regards to that but it is in our schedule. We do sometimes experience challenges with regards to the provision of water but we work around the clock and we work very hard to provide and restore water provision in Danville,” adds Nkoan.
Residents of Danville are calling for the intervention of the national government.
