Residents of the Haak and Steek informal settlements in Barkly West, Northern Cape, have slammed the Dikgatlong Municipality for failing to provide services.
Residents maintain that the municipality has promised to formalise the informal settlement by providing running water, toilets, electricity and proper roads, but to no avail. They say the municipality has failed them.
For over two decades, Haak and Steek informal settlement residents have been waiting for the Dikgatlong Municipality to provide basic services.
They say their only source of water is a leaking pipe and they rely on pit latrines to relieve themselves.
A resident Christa Joos says, “We need water, toilets and roads. So please help us, we are struggling as elderly people. we can’t walk at night because it is dark.”
Poor roads make access to the informal settlement almost impossible. Residents say it’s a nightmare for emergency services and police.
Another resident Elizabeth Riddles adds, “Ambulances can’t go in because there are no proper roads in place to fetch our people when they are sick. Another issue is the potholes and people can’t get inside the community because they have to manoeuvre around the potholes there.”
Attempts to get a response from the Dikgatlong Municipality were unsuccessful. Residents maintain this is the attitude they have been receiving for years. They say they are now pinning their hopes on Good Samaritans who can assist them.
Meanwhile, residents of Phelindaba Township in Stillwater, near Barkly West in the Northern Cape, criticised the Dikgatlong Municipality last month for failing to install water taps in their homes.
For more than ten years, the community of about fifty households has been getting water from one tap which is placed several kilometres away from their homes.
