Ramaphosa informal settlement sanitation crises to be addressed by next week: Maile
JOHANNESBURG - Gauteng Finance MEC Lebogang Maile is confident that the sanitation crisis at the Ramaphosa informal settlement in Emfuleni will be addressed by next week.
Maile made the announcement during the re-tabling of his budget speech on Tuesday.
He said that R300 million had been allocated to the Department of Human Settlements to specifically address sanitation issues.
This follows an EWN report, revealing that portable toilets at the informal settlement had not been cleaned in four months.
Mother of three Frieda Veeris's portable toilet was last cleaned on Valentine's Day.
What's even more traumatic for her is having to use a toilet with worms all over the toilet bowl and seat.
"I don't even want to go in. What happens if a worm finds its way into my private part? I use a bucket now. There's no other way."
Maile said worry no more, as the toilets will soon be cleaned.
"After we have presented the budget, go and check next week if the Ramaphosa informal settlement is receiving the service, so that we don't have budgets that are not spent when people actually have got needs."
Maile said similar issues in other parts of the province would also be addressed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
IOL News
11-06-2025
- IOL News
New healthcare service launched for taxi drivers in Orange Farm
Ribbon cutting at the Mpathy Clinic opening in Orange Farm Image: Supplied This Men's Health Month, the question of who looks after those who drive the heart of South Africa's transport system has been strikingly addressed. In a collaborative effort, Rhiza Babuyile, a prominent non-profit organisation, has teamed up with the Department of Health, Johannesburg Health District Services, and the Orange Farm United Taxi Association (OFUTA) to launch a much-needed healthcare initiative specifically for taxi drivers. The Mpathy Clinic officially opened its doors at one of Orange Farm's busiest taxi ranks, signalling a valuable addition to the community that prioritises the health needs of one of the most hardworking groups in South Africa. 'Taxi drivers avoid going to a clinic because their working conditions simply don't allow them the time to wait in long queues. With this new service, they'll get treatment fast. Quick in and out, no long lines. It's a quality service, built around their reality,' stated Lerato Seheri, Healthcare Manager at Rhiza Holdings. The convenience of the newly launched clinic is a game changer for taxi drivers, who often work long hours under pressure. According to Seheri, the clinic is tailored specifically to accommodate their busy schedules, with consultation fees ranging between R100 and R300, a substantial saving compared to private healthcare costs. 'This clinic meets them where they are and provides them with care without disrupting their day,' she added. The newly launched Mpathy Clinic in Orange Farm Image: Supplied The initiative aligns with South Africa's national 'Closing the Gap' ART Campaign, which aims to identify and support the 1.1 million individuals living with HIV who know their status but have not yet accessed treatment. Seheri highlighted this as critical, remarking, 'Men are significantly less likely than women to engage with routine health services, often leading to late diagnoses of health conditions that could have been manageable or preventable.' Mmakobo Gaegake, Programme Manager for HIV, AIDS, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and Tuberculosis (HAST), echoed these sentiments, underscoring the significance of providing health services at the taxi rank.
Eyewitness News
11-06-2025
- Eyewitness News
Ekurhuleni Mayor seeking legal advice over legality of placing City Manager Imogen Mashazi on special leave
JOHANNESBURG - Ekurhuleni Mayor Doctor Xhakaza is seeking legal advice regarding the legality of the council's decision to place City Manager Imogen Mashazi on special leave. The city council met on Tuesday to discuss whether the decision to put her on special leave should be reversed. Mashazi was granted special leave two weeks ago, with the city citing legislation that prohibits individuals over the age of 65 from occupying senior positions. Her special leave is set to continue until her retirement date in August, but she is refusing to comply with it. The Ekurhuleni city council is divided, with one half arguing that Mashazi's placement on special leave was unlawful, while another maintains that it was justified. Some in the city council have told EWN that although the law prohibits her from holding the city manager position due to her age, the city may have made errors in the processes involved in placing her on special leave. Xhakaza is seeking legal advice from his attorneys to assess the constitutionality of the decision and will report back to the city council after receiving guidance from the legal team. In the meantime, Mashazi insists that her placement on special leave was unjustified.
Daily Maverick
09-06-2025
- Daily Maverick
‘Real people drawing fraudulent salaries' — crackdown looms on public sector ghost employees
It's time to end this 'orchestrated form of systemic corruption' draining state resources, says the chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration. Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration says public sector workers should report in person to prove they're not ghost employees. 'A data audit alone is not enough. We are calling on this process to begin with physical in-person human verification audits for all government employees underpinned by biometric identification. Every person drawing a public salary must appear in person and be verified,' said committee chairperson Jan de Villiers (Democratic Alliance) in a governance cluster press conference in Parliament on Monday. 'The public has the right to know the names on the payroll correspond to individuals who really exist and who serve the public.' Read more: Ghost employees who haunt payrolls are a major occupational fraud hazard Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, in his Budget tabled last month, announced sweeping expenditure reviews of more than R300-billion in government spending since 2013, 'with the aim of identifying duplications, waste and inefficiencies'. Godongwana said the data-driven initiative would cross-reference administrative datasets to 'identify ghost workers and other anomalies across government departments'. De Villiers said the portfolio committee, following Godongwana's announcement in his Budget, had convened on 28 May to interrogate the 'persistent and deeply corrosive problem' of ghost workers in the public sector. He said the National Treasury could not tackle this challenge alone — it required a joint, coordinated strategy, which was now under way between the Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). 'We will reconvene with the Department of Public Service and Administration and the National Treasury in the third quarter of 2025 to receive a full progress report on the implementation of the joint ghost worker audit strategy. This should include details on the scope of these audits, preliminary findings and proposed enforcement measures,' said De Villiers. 'Orchestrated form of systemic corruption' Ghost employee fraud is among South Africa's most persistent public sector challenges. However, the total number of ghost workers — individuals who are fraudulently added to an organisation's payroll but do not actually work there — is unclear. In 2021, the government launched Project Ziveze to investigate and verify all Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) employees after material irregularities were uncovered within Prasa's ICT and payroll systems, indicating that there could be about 3,000 phantom workers. A preliminary report in November 2022 revealed that 1,480 employees could not be verified, while 1,000 others had resigned, Daily Maverick's Suné Payne reported. The agency is estimated to have saved about R200-million through the verification project. Last year, the Auditor-General of South Africa uncovered R6.4-million being paid to 'deceased and terminated' employees. The Public Servants Association (PSA) described this as a 'shocking misuse of public funds' and a 'gross violation of financial accountability'. And in May 2025, the Sunday Times reported that the Gauteng Department of Health had frozen the salaries of 230 employees who could not be verified. These are a handful of the reported cases of ghost employees. 'These are not invisible names on paper. Real people are drawing fraudulent salaries, and fraudulent money is being siphoned into the pockets of corrupt criminals,' said De Villiers. He said the department had disclosed that inserting a ghost employee into the payroll system 'requires collusion because at least three officials need to work together to create a ghost worker. This means that we are dealing not with random lapses in judgment, but with embedded criminal syndicates operating in our public institutions.' He added that the issue of ghost workers was 'not merely a payroll anomaly. It is a deliberate and orchestrated form of systemic corruption. It is organised crime within the state. And as a portfolio committee, tasked with oversight in the public service, the time for half-measures and talk shops is over. 'Let us be clear, the phenomenon of ghost workers is not an issue of administrative error. There are real people creating these ghost workers, reaping the benefits of siphoning taxpayer money into their coffers. 'Every ghost worker represents a post that could've been filled by a qualified graduate, a dedicated nurse, a teacher at a rural school or a social worker supporting the vulnerable. Every fraudulent salary paid is a step backwards in the fight for a professional, ethical and responsive state.' Widespread phenomenon De Villiers did not know how many ghost workers there were in the public service, but suggested, when looking at the known instances of ghost employees, 'that there are thousands'. He said the DPSA had confirmed before Parliament that ghost workers were present across all three spheres of government, including national, provincial and local governments, as well as government agencies and state-owned enterprises. 'The reality is every single department, state agency, level of government and state-owned enterprise that we have, probably has ghost workers on their payroll.' PSA spokesperson Reuben Maleka told Daily Maverick on Monday that the organisation supported a physical audit of ghost workers who 'rob' the public sector of its capacity to provide services to the public. 'The problem is widespread throughout the public sector — government departments, municipalities [and] government entities. The cleaning must happen across the sector,' said Maleka. In addition to calling for a physical audit, De Villiers said the committee would 'push for disciplinary and criminal action to follow every detection of ghost workers. 'We don't know how many ghost workers there are, we don't know who's involved, and not enough people have been arrested so far, to be quite frank. 'I am not aware, as committee chairperson, of a single person who has been arrested thus far in terms of the creation of ghost workers,' he said. De Villiers added that South Africa's ghost worker phenomenon was not only made possible by fraud, but by 'outdated and fragmented administrative processes and systems'. Daily Maverick contacted the National Treasury and the DPSA with queries. Comment will be added once received. DM
