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Speaker 1: We're talking, of course, of this investigation by ewn our

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Speaker 1: reporter Alpha Ramashana went to the imfull Ainy municipality and

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Speaker 1: as they grapple with all sorts of infrastructural challenges including

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Speaker 1: crumbling roads and potholes and of course the sewage problem,

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Speaker 1: the municipality has spent nearly seven hundred million rand paying

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Speaker 1: employee overtime and it's raised all sorts of questions about

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Speaker 1: priorities and accountability. Alpha Ramashana joins us now on the line. Alpha,

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Speaker 1: Always a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for your time. Good morning, good morning.

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Speaker 2: Always a pleasure.

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Speaker 1: Just give us a sense. I mean, we've heard some

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Speaker 1: of your reporting already in our news bulletins this morning.

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Speaker 1: I know one example you used was going to a

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Speaker 1: daycare center that has been unable to open its doors

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Speaker 1: because of the sewage that would otherwise flow into it.

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Speaker 1: What are some of the worst examples you have seen

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Speaker 1: our service delivery failures in that municipality.

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Speaker 2: Well, speaking of that very same day case, Sta, then

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Speaker 2: Bellheli Day CACINT that's located in the Tepong Township Phase one,

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Speaker 2: which is where, surprisingly enough, the mayor of Impul Sipohadevi

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Speaker 2: is from each and every single day he drives past

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Speaker 2: that community to get to his own home Morani, So

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Speaker 2: it's quite a disturbing situation that's happening in that community.

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Speaker 2: But in the very same community, there's another soccer field

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Speaker 2: which you know, a few years ago had young soccer

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Speaker 2: players playing every single day in the evening and today

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Speaker 2: it's been turned into a dumping site. And on one

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Speaker 2: section of that very same sports field there's sewage all

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Speaker 2: over the place, so people can't use it anymore. In

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Speaker 2: the same situation across the municipality, Bongani I visited a

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Speaker 2: home in the Debone Park community which is now almost

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Speaker 2: non existent because sewage has blocked the entire gate, so

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Speaker 2: they can't even access their own home. They can't even

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Speaker 2: park their own vehicles in that yard because sewage has

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Speaker 2: blocked the entire gate and now they've resorted to parking

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Speaker 2: their vehicle next door because they can't access their own gag.

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Speaker 2: So the sewage problem in Ampuleni, according to the residence,

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Speaker 2: has been happening for at least ten years now. It

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Speaker 2: started around twenty fifteen twenty sixteen. Until today, it hasn't

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Speaker 2: been fixed contractors have been sent to the site, money

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Speaker 2: has been spent, but still there's been no change on

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Speaker 2: the ground.

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Speaker 3: Seven hundred million rand.

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Speaker 1: How does the municipality justify the spend on overtime?

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Speaker 2: To be honest, Mongani I had an interview with the

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Speaker 2: municipality spokesperson, Makosonke Sanwni and to a certain extent, I

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Speaker 2: still don't understand it. He doesn't believe that that's the case.

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Speaker 2: He doesn't believe that they spend seven hundred million rand

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Speaker 2: in overtime. These figures were released by the Howding Department

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Speaker 2: of Cooperative Governance, so it wasn't released by the municipality

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Speaker 2: but by the provincial government itself. But Mfuliny doesn't believe

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Speaker 2: that that's factual. Although Cooperative Governance, which deals with all

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Speaker 2: municipalities and the province, does say that this is a

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Speaker 2: fact and they have proof to show it and so the.

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Speaker 3: Sorry alpha where would they have got it from?

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Speaker 2: The Department of Cooperative Governance is sort of an oversight department.

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Speaker 2: They make sure that each and every single municipality is

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Speaker 2: functioning and so they have access to any financial record

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Speaker 2: for any municipality and the municipalities also work with that department.

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Speaker 2: They submit their financials to that department. So these are

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Speaker 2: figures that would have been submitted by the municipality.

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Speaker 1: So either it was spent on overtime or if not,

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Speaker 1: on something else. But certainly, wherever this money was spent,

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Speaker 1: it wasn't on the welfare of the residents.

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Speaker 2: Certainly not. And in fact, that is the very same

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Speaker 2: sentiment that has been spearheaded by many of the residents

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Speaker 2: saying that they see and hear they spent seven hundred

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Speaker 2: million random over time, but they don't see any visible

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Speaker 2: change on the ground. I mean, sewage is flooding homes,

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Speaker 2: that rub a sports field has been turned into an

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Speaker 2: illegal dumping site. Homes are blocked by sewage. The roads

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Speaker 2: are almost nonexistent. In fact, I visited the Rose Road

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Speaker 2: which separates mful Any and the midvow local municipalities, and

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Speaker 2: the road is.

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Speaker 3: Barey U gosh.

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Speaker 1: Signal too is a challenge, but I think we've got

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Speaker 1: the gist of it there. If you're living in mfull Any,

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Speaker 1: how does that make you feel? He mentions Debone Park.

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Speaker 1: I once lived in Debone Park. It was one of

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Speaker 1: the original gray areas, one of the first suburbs to

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Speaker 1: open up for people of all races. This was about

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Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen. The homes were beautiful. It was just behind

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Speaker 1: the De Deer police station. I know the area well

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Speaker 1: and the idea now that people are parking their cars

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Speaker 1: at their neighbor's house because of sewage spilling into their

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Speaker 1: oath they did open their gates. Their house will be

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Speaker 1: swimming in the brown and nasty. Do you, as a

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Speaker 1: resident of imfull any feel helpless in an election?

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Speaker 2: Here?

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Speaker 3: In an election, yeer, how can you