Meat vendors left without stalls after sewage pipe burst in Makhaza

Informal traders from Makhaza Road Reserve informal settlement in Makhaza are appealing to the City to relocate them to safe spaces for trading within the area. They said the City officials told them to move to pave a way to fix the broken sewage pipe which caused floods in the area. (“Shacks fall into sewage sinkhole”, City Vision, 4 December.)
Most of the stalls are meat stalls.
One of the meat vendors, Nonyameko Dlula, accused the City officials for leaving them in the dark. She said they didn’t recommend any open space for them to rebuild their stalls.
“More than 10 stalls were here (corner of Japhta Masemola and Nyanda streets). Some of the meat vendors stopped selling because there are no open spaces to rebuild the stalls. Those who are still operating are working in other people’s places (stalls) who went to the Eastern Cape for the holidays,” she said.
Dlula said she has been in this business for more than 20 years. She said she knows nothing else besides selling meat.
“All we want is for the City to recommend open spaces where we can rebuild our stalls. What they are doing can cause conflict among ourselves as meat vendors,” she said.
John Ninson, a barbershop owner, also complained that since the sewage pipe burst his business is not doing well. He said he ended up putting sand in front of it so the dirty water does not come inside.
“People are not coming any more now since there was flooding. But I don’t blame the customers because the whole area is flooded and it stinks. Even us, we are getting sick because of the dirty water,” said Ninson, urging the City to quickly fix the problem.
The City’s Mayco member for water and sanitation, Zahid Badroodien, said there are a number of collapses in Khayelitsha that the City is dealing with and these collapses are taking place in an area that has been illegally invaded. He said there are structures on top of the bulk sewer pipelines that are impacted because the bulk sewer network is starting to collapse.
“This results in sewer blockages and sewer overflows in other parts of the community which can cause public health problems. We are treating this as an emergency because we must relocate those residents who are on top of the sewer pipe to an open space within the community. That is what is causing the delay. The water and sanitation team together with the human settlement team are working closer to identify these alternative spaces,” said Badroodien, adding that they are also working with the office of the Public Protector as well as South African Human Rights Commission offices conducting a site visit to see the emergency of the situation. He urged the community to work with the City to speed up the relocation process.
The City’s Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said various City departments worked with the community to provide assistance to those affected in the area.
“Our teams, together with the political leadership, worked to identify land for the relocation of the affected families. The relocation will be carried out as soon as possible,” he said, adding that there are more than 40 structures that need to be relocated.