Farmers in and around Tshilamba, in the Mutale area, are up in arms over the Vhembe District Municipality's alleged neglect to repair burst sewage pipes and close open sewage holes in their area, which they claim pose a danger to them and their livestock. An incident where a cow fell into an open sewage hole at Tshilamba and drowned this week left residents red in the face with anger.
A local female subsistence farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had been calling the municipality to close open sewage holes for many years, but to no avail. "Right now, there are at least three busted sewage pipes around Tshilamba that sprang up over the past two months, and even though we have reported them to the authorities, nothing is being done. The whole place is stinking, and we can't even eat in our own homes," she said.
She added that at least five donkeys had fallen into the same open sewage pipe and died in the past. "Our children play in this area as it is next to an open ground. Is the municipality waiting for a human being to die until they close these open sewage holes?" she asked.
The chairperson of the South African National Civic Association (SANCO) in the area, Mr Tshifhiwa Negondeni, is accusing the VDM and the Thulamela Local Municipality of having failed to deliver services to the people of Tshilamba since the Mutale Local Municipality was merged with the Thulamela Municipality during the formation of the Collins Chabane Municipality. "The two municipalities treat our township as a village. We have been asking them to put a fence around this area as we are situated in the middle of villages where there are many people who live here with a lot of livestock. There are a lot of donkeys and cows moving around here," he said.
Negondeni said they had been calling for the people who used to work at the local offices of the former Mutale Local Municipality to come back, without success. He added that, when they tried to talk to the subsistence farmers to warn them not to allow their livestock to roam around the township, the farmers told them that their animals had been grazing in the area for a very long time, and that they would not stop letting them graze there because of the township.
VDM spokesperson Mr Matodzi Ralushai said the issue of the drowned cow had been attended to on Monday afternoon (2 October), and that the municipality was busy working in the area. "Service delivery is a collective effort, hence the commitment to participatory democracy, which gives citizens a voice. But government also needs their commitment and accountability. If we work together, service-delivery challenges, which include illegal connections and vandalism of infrastructure, will also be prevented," he said.