A family sits down in the shade of a mango tree, drinking some tea on a sunny morning. Not far away from them is an odorous trench which was dug from the sewerage mainline to divert the seemingly uncontrollable sewage onto the open, bushy ground which lies only about 15 metres away from them.

Not long ago, on 18 January, the Limpopo Mirror reported on the dysfunctional sewerage system in Tshikota. The article followed after concerned residents had contacted the newspaper's offices, complaining about the perpetual problem of open sewers.

“They came and repaired the sewer which ran along the street, but never addressed the main problem, which is a smelly trench next to our house,” Elisa Ndou says. She stays at 1216, a residential house which has become like a terrible plague to the ears of the officials in the municipality. “Each time we call to report the matter, they say 'Oh, 1216! It's you again?'”

As a result of the trench of odorous sewage, residents can hardly eat any food in their own houses as green, dizzy flies come to rest on their plates of food.

Ndou still maintains that the municipality must try to fix the sewer problem effectively, or else they must find them another place to stay. “Why must we live in faeces? What wrong did we do to deserve this kind of treatment from our own municipality?”

In a separate case, Ms Saneta Stuurman's Peace Fast Food business is negatively affected by a stinking, simmering sewer which spills over a few metres from her business near the Bar Lounge. “Learners no longer want to sit at the tables, because of the unpleasant smell coming from the spilling sewage,” says Ms Stuurman. “The stench was so terrible on Sunday that I couldn't even open for business. I've been operating this place for the past three years and I've never lost business like now.”

When contacted for comment, the spokesperson for the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi, said that the municipality is endeavouring with almost every possible effort to get the situation under control. “We are currently opening that line at Padkamp in order to address it permanently,” said Bobodi. “The Padkamp issue will also address Peace Fast Food and Bar Lounge.”

Bobodi said that the open trench would be closed by the end of business on Friday, but he didn't give any reason for why the municipality had failed do so. “All the reports have been received and the mayor and the technical director have been to the site already,” he says. “We are using HTH chlorine to minimise the stench.”