Joe Slovo ‘going to ruin’
You’ve got to be brave to drive around Joe Slovo Park and Phoenix with the many potholes, broken drains, overcrowding, and crime, say residents.
Three residents drove through the area with Tabletalk on Saturday and described its many problems. Two of them declined to be named, saying they feared for their safety.
“The thieves here don’t care. They walk into our homes with guns and demand that we take our TVs off the wall and give it to them,” said a 43-year-old Phoenix man as he hopped in the back seat.
He said there had been at least 11 killings in Joe Slovo and Phoenix in the past month and residents believed they were gang related.
Milnerton police spokesperson Captain Nopaya Madyibi said the station had no record of that many murders, but other than confirming that crime had increased in Joe Slovo and Phoenix in recent weeks, she said she could not give crime statistics for the past month.
Another resident said the community had scribbled over gang graffiti on the walls of a sewage pumping station two weeks ago, but some of it had returned.
“This suburb is going to ruin, and these ugly signs are an eyesore,” she said, adding that the police when called often took hours to arrive if they came at all.
Captain Madyibi responded: “When the police are called out on the scene, the complaint is registered and forwarded to radio control, which will then broadcast it to the patrol vehicle in that area to attend. It is the police's duty to attend to all calls.”
Joe Slovo resident Bekhani Dlodlo pointed out sewage in the streets and illegal dumping along Democracy Way, Khozi Drive and Hobe Road.
A foul stench hangs in the air and pedestrians have to dodge potholes of sewage. Children could be seen picking their way through alleys clogged with soiled nappies and other rubbish.
The potholes had not been fixed in months, and the area had not been cleaned despite repeated complaints to the City, said Mr Dlodlo.
“We understand that this community is overcrowded and that the infrastructure can’t handle all of us, but then the City should come up with solutions such as relocating the people or fixing the infrastructure.”
An action plan given to ward councillor Anthony Benadie, proposing solutions to various problems, had yet to be discussed, said Mr Dlodlo.
Outside Marconi Beam Primary School along Democracy Way, people scavenge through rubbish while others add more to the pile.
“Now you see, the people are also to blame for this mess because they are dumping here, but we need the City to put extra bins in the area and fine people who are dumping rubbish so that we can have some order here,” said Mr Dlodlo.
A Marconi Beam Primary School teacher, who did not want to be named, said drug addicts’ needles had been found near the school gate and the caretakers fought a futile battle against litter blown in from the streets and left by vagrants who scratched for food in rubbish piles outside the school.
“Dare we approach the residents, or host a clean-up drive we will get into trouble here because this is just the way they live. It doesn’t seem like they want it to change,” she said.
Mr Benadie said Joe Slovo had more than three times the number of people than what its infrastructure was built for. It was hard for garbage trucks and emergency vehicles to get into the area, and illegal electricity and water connections strained the system, he said.
“While it remains a challenge, the City is determined to bring about meaningful change, hope and development to this community,” he said, adding that he was working closely with residents, and the action plan was being finalised.
Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas said illegally connected electrical wires, cars blocking already narrow streets and cramped living conditions made it hard for technicians to reach utilities that needed maintenance or repairs.
The City, he said, was doing a “detailed site investigation” to find a way to mechanically clean the area’s stormwater drains.
“Due to the contamination of the system in this area, labour intensive methods have been ruled out,” he said.
