Northern Cape: Broken promises | Carte Blanche | M-Net

is there a more ironically named place in the Country Than Hope Town dry Dusty impoverished forgotten hopess town would be more appropriate it's in the northern Cape the country's largest Province where many Service delivery and infrastructure promises have been broken a situation not limited to small town and Rural communities even the capital Kimber is showing signs of Decay we're avoiding Party politics in the buildup to this month's B and have instead traveled to some of the country's poorest provinces to evaluate past election promises today tonight Goin brings us the second installment of a campaign we're calling broken [Music] promises it's the country's largest Province but not much ever happens here residents of small towns across the Northern Cape feel forgotten by government journeying through the province we find the remnants of grand promises now broken how's it searching for answers we have the premier Liv here can you ask him if he can speak to us we find people disillusioned and despondent it's like Venice Northern Cape style here to see what remains of a community Sports Stadium but we're blocked by rivers of water hop Town's municipality moved residents into this area that floods every time it rains the T municipality spent Millions to install services in this watery mess France Ms is a counselor but only a few households got electricity the majority just empty poles after a contractor ran off with over 2 million Rand just opposite this area is the sunny boy Yankees Municipal Sports [Music] Stadium constructed in 2008 the same municip it got 11 and5 million Rand to upgrade it it's hard to see how that money was spent this fence is the only new addition and these two JoJo tanks adding insult to injury residents have to pay the municipality to use the facility or what's left of it philipstown about 130 km from Hop toown can't even boast an unfinished Stadium party agents canvasing for votes aren't exactly welcome here in anticipation of a promised 240 houses 10 years ago Millions were spent on infrastructure left to rot in the harsh Karu Sun infrastructure maintenance doesn't appear to be high on the agenda in the northern Cape not even in the provincial cap Capital Kimberly Kim F former teacher and current counselor Johan Smith is a common site on Kimberly streets he's the community's eyes and ears that Sparkles Kimberly's water infrastructure has collapsed but that hasn't stemmed the flow of money to several ambitious but questionable projects like this fire station on the edge of the city more than 1 million apparently wasted but a waterfree fire station pales in comparison to The Madness of the project on our next stop on Nelson Mandela and uh struggling to see it we did [Music] [Music] too yeah our final stop was a stretch of Road outside the city Kimberly has been drowning in its own sewage for nearly a decade rivers of sewage flow into these pans on the outskirts they've been dubbed the zamani pants after the provincial Premier zamani s the soul municipality says it spent only 5 million Rand on upgrades to the pump station yet provincial government still had to lift the road over the sewage spills at a cost of around 30 million Rand it is the provincial Department refused to comment on the amount spent sewage though isn't only a problem on the city's outskirts there a put the sign's not across the road anymore they used to call it strong Strat strong Strat when Cliff Hudson bought his house in an upmarket Kimberly suburb he didn't expect it would one day be a waterfront property you've got feces tampons toilet paper running underneath your house how are you able to live with this I spend my whole pension money just about on the house there's nowhere I can go nobody's going to buy my house so what must I do he used his own money to install a pipeline to divert the sewage well the first time I blocked I was sleeping and uh I got out of bed to go to the toilet and I uh noticed but the whole floor is wet then I started see seage floating around the house inside yes smell it was terrible sometimes the levels rise so high that Cliff sandals float from the bedroom to the garage ironically the pump station is just a few meters from Cliff's house but apparently the municipality sometimes forgets to switch it on J after getting word of our presence the official responsible for sorting out sewage blockages in Kimberly arrives hello you're from the municipality in charge of the sewage Works he tries to get Municipal workers on site un I'll you guys you put you what I'll you residents come out to talk to us they say they've been complaining about the sewage leaks for years municipality denies there is a problem come talk to us Winston pleasan this is years of neglect don't you think the public deserves an answer you know this is a blockage that could have happened yesterday this blockage could have happened yesterday yeah the municipality later tells us there's been no complaint about this station in over 2 years and yet this is happening in a suburb where those best place to fix the problem live with it every day what kind of neighborhood is this well it's ANC City what's it called ANC City all the big knobs and you won't guess who lives a few houses down the road how it we have the premier Li zamani saw the northern Cap's premere can you ask him if he can speak to us no no not as a not as a premier as a resident of the streets yeah yeah yeah we push for a chat about the sewage flooded Street Premier how's it as you know I'm I'm with C blanch now yeah I'm sure you know about cleff there he had the sage running across the street right here right I mean right here they put the sign on the on the on the boom on it said St Strat have I'm sure you've seen it yeah proper context is very important the the par infrastructure par you know was put up here in 1947 for 16,000 households yeah from 1994 we that project RTP program of uh connecting previously disadvantage the premier went on to say the RDP program launched in 1994 aimed to connect the previously disadvantage to clean water and proper sanitation in 30 years should you have upgraded that by now there's work to up there's work that took place to upgrade it but how much longer do you need no no no you can you can even need 500 years Premier the resident say you drive that way you don't drive across the across the sewer no they they they are talking nonsense because because because anybody can tell you these guys can tell you I round down here every day one thing I want to say you know the people here complain about the smell do you smell it sometimes I do get it I do get it you irritated when you smell it so balance narrative these are challenges that comes with development at a l s says the soul py municipality received 2.5 billion Rand to upgrade its bulk water system we've established that none of this is earmarked to fix the sewage system Our Journey coming to an end we pass the site of the most recent high-profile political rally in the area no less than president sir Raposa and the premier were in attendence in January when a planned 1 billion Rand housing project was unveiled Nelly France had a front row seat when it was announced on this field right next to a house Nelly has been living in this Shanty for 55 years she no longer believes change is [Music] [Music] coming and Nelly says no one has been back since the January announcement there's a billion Rand housing project which which you launched about 2 3 months ago correct are you going to keep your promise to give those people houses I don't know what kind of a question is that because there is money that has been available when are you going to start building this sir I'm certain I'm certain by the end of this month a contractor will be putting upside [Music] today [Music] for we don't have house they promise us too long they promise the people there will be no houses here anytime soon according to to what we [Music] see next week the promise of proper housing in quaza Nal decades on very little has been delivered now the company who's doing the RDP houses they took the money and fell out as the elections draw near kzn one of the most highly contested provinces and a strong contributor to the country's economy should be well placed to deliver on its Service delivery promises but on the ground communities are fed up people really now start to feel that we are going towards Zimbabwe states where government is no more caring for its own citizens our team heads into a province that could be a game changer in the upcoming elections thanks for watching why not drop us a comment below we love reading your opinions remember you can now access cart blanch stories anytime anywhere even offline cart blanch the podcast is now available on all major podcast platforms so be sure to hit that follow or subscribe button and be part of our growing online family

Channel: Carte Blanche

Views: 128,492

Keywords: carte blanche, carte blanche mnet, carte blanche south africa, carte blanche sunday, mnet, Derek Watts, Devi Sankaree-Govender, Bongani Bingwa, John Webb, Claire Mawisa, macfarlane moleli, Devi Sankaree Govender, Masa Kekana, carteblanchetv, carte blanche tonight, carte blanche episode list, carte blanche online, carte blanche live, carte blanche latest, erin bates, govan whittles, lourensa eckard, xola ntshinga, kyknet

Id: mGzYRPJWv60

Length: 16min 37sec (997 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024