By Nangamso Mabindla
15 June 2006

BUFFALO City Mayor Zintle Peter visited the Nompumelelo settlement on Wednesday, 14 June, to deal with concerns raised by residents in a letter sent to her office.

Some of the complaints by the 1 200 families living in the newly built area included being charged for water and electricity services that had not been installed as well as a blocked sewer.

In addition, the roof of one of the newly built houses had blown off on a windy winter day.

Responding to their calls, Peter, accompanied by the City's housing portfolio head Sithembiso Tyilo and several City officials, visited Nompumelelo to assess the situation.

"We have not come to a meeting with the community; I just felt that before I could call the City's politicians and officials [together] to discuss the matter, we should come here and see these things with our own eyes," said Peter.

Of immediate concern was the blocked sewer. "This is very dangerous not only to our people but also to the environment," Peter said.

The City's sanitation manager, Mark Westerberg, said: "We will be flushing the blocked pipe with a 4 500-litre water tank. We want to get rid of foreign material blocking the pipe."

He added that the department would also be looking at ways to improve the living conditions of people living next to the sewer.

Peter told the residents a technical team of officials from Buffalo City's five directorates would get together next week to come up with ways to tackle the other issues in the letter.

Once the team had come up with strategies, a meeting would be held with the community to keep them informed, Peter said.