Lerato Mbhiza
Residents of Diepkloof hostel in Soweto barricaded the N1 and N12 highways with burning tyres and rocks on Monday morning and complained that they have been trying to engage with the office of the Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to air their grievances.
The resident said Lesufi was meant to come last year but didn’t make it to hear about their daily challenges. One of them is the bucket system that they are still using.
They said although water and electricity was installed, their living conditions are still deplorable.
One of the leaders of the hostel Sanel Msibi said they have been trying to reach the office of the Primer Lesufi but the officials haven’t responded.
“The people staying in the hostels face a lot of challenges. The hostel is 64-years old but when you look at the building there is no service brought to the people even where I’m from in KZN we don’t live like this. This place lacks service to add that we only got electricity last year .. no one can live in this hostel it’s not healthy it’s inhumane,” he said
In June last year Joburg Mayor, Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda visited the hostels and made verbal promises to the community after he witnessed the deplorable conditions they lived in. He promised to come back to help solve the problem faced by the residents.
A year after they protested, the residents’ homes got electricity formally for the first time in decades late on Tuesday.
The hostels, in Soweto, were built in the 1970s for workers coming from rural areas to work in the city. The homes were then taken over and are managed by the municipality. However, more than 7,000 residents have had to survive without water and proper electricity for years while their homes have become dilapidated.
All of the brick structures are crumbling, they have broken windows, doors and when it rains water floods through holes in the roofs.
Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson, Xolani Fihla, said officers have been on the scene and monitoring the area for flare-ups.
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