Despite Laudium and Erasmia residents constantly complaining and raising concerns about poor service delivery from the relevant departments of government and local authorities, their concerns seemingly remain irrelevant to those in authority.
It is evident that unless local communities do not unite and speak as one body, the relevant departments from the police to the local council will continue to ignore their pleas. Residents have, for long, been complaining about issues such as crime, title deeds for all the houses in Whiteblocks, the direct usage of the stadiums by all sporting bodies, graveyard maintenance, the open area behind extension 3 leading to the hills, the continuous power failure around Emerald Street, presumably due to faulty or worn out cables, the spiraling amount of homes turned into businesses, the influx of nyaopes into the area, the need for the building of a new police station, etc, to no avail. Once again the issue of faulty lights on Emerald Street has surfaced, with residents complaining of faulty street lights and the danger this poses as the street remains dark during the nights.
Resident Marimuthoo Pillay (72) of Emerald Street, told the Laudium Sun, “I have been living in Laudium for most of my 72 years, and I can see the change happening in this place, from good to bad. Laudium is going to the dogs. Look at the street lights for example. From the bottom of Emerald Street right till the corner of 19th Ave, we do not have any street lights working at night. It is so dangerous when we go in and out of our yards during the evenings. It’s so dark because of the street lights not working, that we won’t even see who is following us at night to our homes. There have been numerous complaints about residents’ goods getting stolen out of their yards at night, but no one can see who the culprits walking the streets are, as it is so dark. Also, look at the overgrown trees on Emerald Street. The Jacarandas used to look so beautiful blossoming white and purple flowers, but look at it now. The trees are so overgrown and are causing a nuisance as they are hiding the street lights when the lights do work. They are also causing electric cables to snap. We have complained over the past year at least, but with no results. I have been to the council office in Laudium many times, to complain, but it is a problem for me to keep on going there because I am old. What I don’t understand is why do we, in the first place, even have to complain? Don’t the council workers who drive in the area and even our councillor, see the overgrown trees and can’t they log in a complaint? I plead once more to the council to take our concerns seriously.”
Sudir Reddy who has a fruit and veg shop on Emerald Street told the Laudium Sun, “It is so dangerous here at night because of the street lights not working. We have had many robberies in the area lately. Anyone can just walk into our shop and rob us or worse even hurt us. Something must be done about the crime in Laudium and the poor service we are getting from the council.”
Councillor Naeem Patel told the Laudium Sun that he was not aware of the problem but will look into the matter and report it to the relevant council department.
