High up on a Makhanda hill, past Mary Waters, and just before Extension 10, the neglected community of Hooggenoeg lives with constant sewage leaks. Community activist Berend Walters spends much time unblocking municipal drains with his steel rods so that the sewage does not overflow into the community. When the sewage is blocked up in the municipal pipeline, it spurts up and out of residents’ toilet bowls and the domestic drains in their yards, even if they keep these clear. Walters and other residents of Hooggenoeg have also resorted to digging channels around their homes for situations where a sudden sewage leak might otherwise flood their yards and creep inside their homes. However, there is nothing Walters can do about a major sewage leak on what used to be empty land next to First Avenue.
The community also lives in dire poverty, without street lights and, they say, without much assistance from Makana Municipality in times of crisis. The Grocott’s Mail Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism students this week explore the lived experiences of some Hooggenoeg residents in three stories using a Solidarity Journalism lens, which takes a stand for dignity and against suffering.
In the following stories, student journalists ‘Odidi Matai-Sigudla, Anga-Anganda Bushwana, and Ruvesen Naidoo talk to some residents about the main problems in Hooggenoeg.
- Hooggenoeg’s ’20 year’ sewage nightmare
- Nantsi intlungu (here’s the painful part)
- Sewage leaks threaten the future of Hooggenoeg
