Over 12,000 residents at 17 new informal settlements in Botshabelo say they have no access to water and sanitation. Since 2023, residents say they’ve been waiting on the government to provide some services, but this has not happened. 

Here families don’t even get a drop from the water tankers dispatched by the municipality. They rely on fetching water from nearby streams, while some opt to walk to the surrounding townships, which are established and have basic amenities, to get water or relieve themselves. Sometimes they get permission from homeowners. Many dwellers claim residents in the townships expect them to pay to use their toilets and for the water they use. Others have even resorted to illegally connecting water pipes from the nearby homes.

Molefi Tomose (67) has been staying at Riverside informal settlement, close to Section L in Botshabelo, since June 2023. He is one of 500 people who are trying to make their home here. But the absence of water and sanitation is a great cause for concern. Over the past year the Mangaung municipality has been promising to provide water tankers and Jojo tanks. These promises have not materialised.  

Residents collect water from a nearby shop. This has become a make-shift communal tap. Tomose says to relieve themselves, they use a self dug toilet at the shop, this happens even at night.

Suzan Majela (52) moved to the site in August 2023 in search of what she described as dignity.

She gets water from the nearby homes. And now that she’s no longer paying rent she can use her children’s social grant money for other needs.   

“I stopped worrying about the basics and I know even if they take time one day they will bring us water, toilets and electricity. I had to move here because I lost my job in 2023 and I was not able to pay my rent and I needed a place to stay,” she says.

Another informal settlement is Industrial Park next to unused local factory buildings. Unlike other local informal settlements in the area, over 4500 people staying here are far from the water sources.

According to the squatters, the municipality failed to fulfill its promise of bringing Jojo tanks. Boniwe Mangena (41), a mother of two, says the lack of basic services is risking her family’s well-being.

“We are using buckets to relieve ourselves and having to use water from the river because we are at the outskirts of the area,” she says.

Government failure 

Dimpho Masita, Free State stakeholder relations of Asivikelane, an advocacy group for people living at informal settlements, says Mangaung municipality is failing to protect people’s rights.

She says the 17 informal settlements in Botshabelo which were all formed in the beginning of 2023 were a sign of the government’s failure.

“Hygiene is very poor at all these informal settlements. We have submitted proposals to the municipality. We are hoping that by the end of July something will be happening,” she says.

“Asivikelane will provide three ablution facilities for the community of Industrial Park where there’s no water or electricity. We are hoping to do the same for other areas if the situation remains the same by the end of  July,” Masita adds. 

Illegal connections

Another group of residents at N8 Park have illegally connected water for themselves. 

“We have stayed here since February 2023. We decided to connect water because our neighbors who have water wouldn’t allow us to pour water from their taps. We connected seven communal taps for the 1500 residents to be able to have water,” Lerato Ntsasa, a dweller in N8 Park informal settlement tells Health-e News. 

“We have written a complaint to the office of Public Protector to compel the Mangaung metro to provide us with sanitation and formal taps in our yards,” she says.  

With no clinics near 14 of 17 informal settlements, residents are calling for mobile clinics to be sent to their areas. 

Advocacy groups are calling the municipality out for failing to provide basics to the people more than a year after they invaded the land. 

“One goal of the Abahlali Land Programmes Centre is to upgrade informal settlements throughout Mangaung by addressing water, sanitation, and hygiene issues,” says Thato Kgoathela secretary of the NPO working on the needs of the squatters.

He adds that they have a programme to improve general conditions in informal settlements.

“One way we hope to achieve this goal is through the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Upgrading Programme. This programme aims to create community managed toilet facilities that also act as a community health and education space,” he says.

Plans underway

Mangaung mayor Gregory Nthatisi says only eight of the 17 informal settlements would be formalised. 

“Our database shows us that Botshabelo alone has a home backlog of close to 18 000 people. Currently we have over 12 000 who have erected shanties at 17 different informal settlements on municipal land including on land which has been earmarked as residential and none residential,” he says. 

“We are working hard to ensure that we put in a water network. We are also planning to bring ablution facilities. We have secured a Municipal Infrastructure Grant from the national government which will enable us to do the work,” says Nthatisi. – Health-e News