Residents of Boitumelo in Sebokeng have spent years living with raw sewage flooding their homes and yards, with some abandoning their RDP houses because of unbearable conditions that they say pose serious health risks and violate their human dignity.
Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Legislature Member Kingsol Chabalala described the situation as a gross violation of human rights that goes far beyond a simple service-delivery failure. Speaking about a recent visit to the area, he said residents told him that R40 million had been earmarked by government to relocate them to habitable land and provide proper housing, but the funds were misappropriated by the local municipality and the Gauteng provincial government.
Chabalala confirmed that the residents themselves reported the money was intended for resettlement. “Contractors came and government officials indicated that they would be relocated,” he said, yet no action followed. He added that the Democratic Alliance has now submitted formal questions to the Gauteng provincial government seeking clarity on what happened to the R40 million and why residents continue to live in such inhumane conditions.
The crisis is not limited to Boitumelo. Chabalala pointed to similar complaints elsewhere, including a ward councillor who has to remove human faeces from her house every second day, and residents in other parts of the area who cannot even access their yards because of sewage overflow. He noted that in the past two financial years the municipality spent approximately R200 million on service providers to fix the sewer problems, yet the situation has worsened. National government has also invested millions, but residents have seen no improvement, he said.
Chabalala highlighted that many of the homes were built on wetlands near major sewer infrastructure, raising questions about who should be held accountable for placing people on unsuitable land. He stated that both the Gauteng provincial government and the local municipality must answer for the ongoing failure.
The DA member said the issue has been escalated to the South African Human Rights Commission and the Public Protector on grounds of human-rights violations and maladministration, but responses from these institutions have been minimal despite repeated follow-ups. He noted that the Gauteng Premier has publicly indicated the government has “run out of ideas” on how to resolve the problem.
Chabalala criticised the handling of infrastructure funding, saying the municipality returned more than R600 million to the national treasury last year — money that had been allocated for upgrading sewer, water and road infrastructure — yet chose not to spend it on the affected communities. He also cited an example from February and March when refuse collection did not take place, but municipal employees still claimed R15 million in overtime.
On solutions, Chabalala said immediate emergency action is required to remove residents from the flooded area. As the DA, he proposed using the Municipal Infrastructure Grant to upgrade infrastructure and relocate affected residents to habitable land so they are no longer subjected to what he called a gross violation of their human rights.
He argued that the provincial government cannot be separated from the local municipality’s failures, pointing out that Emfuleni was placed under administration from 2018 until August 2024. Barely a month after the administration was lifted, Eskom and other entities moved to seize the municipality’s bank accounts, which Chabalala described as evidence that the intervention was politically motivated rather than a genuine attempt to fix residents’ problems.
Chabalala concluded that the provincial government has shown it is out of touch with the daily realities faced by residents and is failing in its oversight role.