Businesspeople who ply their trades and workers and shoppers who frequent Thohoyandou’s CBD are threatening to withdraw their voting power, following a sequence of burst sewerage pipes in the town over the past few months that they claim the municipality neglects to fix properly. People are complaining about the rivers of stinking human waste that flow through the streets, which have become a source of great discomfort for shoppers and the cause of hawkers’ and businesses’ losing their precious income.

The latest burst, at the FNB traffic lights, is said to have been flowing for 10 days non-stop. One of the hawkers who cooks and sells food in the CBD said the sewerage had already affected their businesses adversely. “We are in a small hell here. We cannot even breathe because of the bad stench, and this might affect our health. The worst part is that we have had no business for the past 10 days. Who wants to buy and eat food next to flowing sewage? We have lost a great deal, and despite our cries to the municipality, the problem does not get fixed,” he said.

Another affected hawker, who preferred anonymity, said she had to close her market stall as a result of the terrible smell that accompanied the sewage. “This has become unbearable. Every now and again, a sewerage pipe would break, but this is the longest we have had to wait for them to come and fix it. The municipality is just a stone's throw from here and has personnel that can deal with this, but they will wait for a long time to fix it when it bursts. We are paying for our licenses, but we are getting nothing in return. The only way to end this is to vote these guys out of office. The time has come, and we will teach them a lesson through the ballot paper,” she said.

Vhembe District Municipality’s spokesperson, Mr. Matodzi Ralushai, admitted that they have a problem with the sewer line in the Thohoyandou CBD. “The system has become too small to handle the huge flow of waste and cannot withstand the pressure, and this is the reason why it is bursting time and again. As we speak, a contractor is on-site working on the problem. There is a long-term plan to address this problem to put a stop to it once and for all,” he said.