The residents of Pension Cottages, on the corner of Catherine Street and Plaine Street in Tongaat, have been faced with extremely high water bills as well as damages and loss caused by repeated flooding in the area.
The residents, most of them pensioners and underprivileged families, say these challenges have been impacting their quality of life and demand an improvement to their living conditions.
Shantal Nair, a Ward 61 committee member and community activist, said: “Following the advice of Councillor Dolly Munien, I have been assisting people with dispute forms regarding the high billing and I feel that the eThekwini Municipality has been failing us. An official from the municipality comes to take our water meter reading every month but when we go to get a readout of our billing it says ‘meter not read’, they are estimating. These houses are occupied by senior citizens and low income families, if a pensioner is getting a pension grant of R2100 and are being billed R1000 or R1500, what are they left with from the grant?”
One of the residents facing these large water bills Geetha Ramgarib, said: “Recently we have been getting high water bills, the latest being R74 000, some of my neighbours have bills of R20 000 or R30 000, there is even one resident with a bill of R105 000. Many of the residents here are pensioners who cannot afford these bills but have nowhere else to go.”
Nair said residents have taken it up with ward councillors and the Department of Housing but have received no joy. “Nobody is assisting us in regards to the high billing and they recently came to disconnect our homes without notification, giving people slips with the outstanding amount and expecting us to go make payment arrangements. If people are sitting with a bill of R20 000 and they only have one income in the household, how are they going to pay R2500 on a R20 000 bill? This is not affordable,” added Nair.
Another concern facing residents is the floods commonly faced in the area and the damage being done to their homes. Ramgarib said: “In 2022, we had floods in April and May, since then the municipality has done nothing for us. In January 2024 we had floods again, and again nothing has been done for us. We received aid from community organisations in the form of food and clothing hampers, however, we need the help of the municipality, we have cracks in our roof, in our walls, and even in the foundations. We are asking that the relevant stakeholders come to the party. Yes, these are low income homes but that does not mean we have to live like this.”
Ramgarib highlighted the crumbling fence around the cottages and leaking pipes as major concerns. “We have rotting pipes underground, we have leaking pipes in our homes, leaking toilets, and leaking geysers. The area is infested with vermin such as roaches and rats with the smell of excrement constantly present. Living like this has hurt the mental and physical health of residents,” she said.
Responding to these claims, Ward 58 Councillor Geoffrey Pullan, apologised to the community for the city’s poor service delivery. He said: “Many of us, and the public themselves, are anxious about this, that is why the ruling party did not get an overall majority in our recent election. The municipality suffers from a lack of capacity for personnel and equipment. The new GNU is aware of this shortcoming and has appointed two qualified people to assess the faults and institute corrections to improve service delivery. I meet regularly with our water and road engineers to redirect floodwaters away from homes in this low-lying central part of Tongaat. As a party, we have also been challenging the high water bills. Regrettably, half of the water the city purchases is ‘lost’ and so the rest of us have to pay more to cover for this.”
Ward 61 Councillor, Dolly Munien, echoed Cllr Pullan and said: “We have been assisting residents who come to our office with these high bills. Following the flooding, we aided residents in cleaning up the area and ensured that every resident was registered for and received a voucher worth R2100 to aid them in their time of need.”
The eThekwini Municipality was contacted for comment and was yet to respond by the time of print.
