Imizamo Yethu is a vibrant community struggling with broken sewage pipes and overflowing waste that turn streets and even the beloved basketball court into unsafe places. Despite the stench and health risks, children sneak back onto the damaged court, showing their strong hope and love for play. The old sewer system can’t keep up with the growing population, making life messy and dangerous. While the city plans upgrades years from now, residents build makeshift bridges over sewage and keep pushing for clean water, safe homes, and respect. Their fight is one of courage and determination amid hardship.
Imizamo Yethu faces severe infrastructure issues including sewage blockages, overflowing waste, and outdated sewer systems strained by rapid population growth. These problems cause health hazards, environmental pollution, and unsafe living conditions, impacting community spaces like the basketball court and daily life.
For close to ten years, the residents of Imizamo Yethu have confronted a daily ordeal that shapes every aspect of their lives. This township, nestled on the verdant hillsides of Hout Bay, was meant to be alive with the sounds of children’s laughter, friendly banter, and the busy rhythms of local commerce. Instead, the air often carries the bite of untreated sewage, and conversations center on how to sidestep the latest overflow. Streets that should serve as arteries of community life have become hazardous paths, where puddles of waste undermine both safety and dignity.
Among the township’s most poignant symbols stands its once-bustling basketball court. The court was the social and athletic heart of Imizamo Yethu—a place where the squeak of sneakers and the swish of netting marked moments of aspiration and connection. It was here that Bryn Mbulawa founded the Hout Bay Snipers Basketball Club, inviting as many as seventy young people to find camaraderie and purpose on the court. Mbulawa’s mission went far beyond sport; he sought to build a sanctuary where youth could escape the instability that too often defined life outside the fence. But systemic neglect and repeated infrastructure breakdowns have turned the court into a no-go zone. Blocked manholes and malfunctioning ablution facilities routinely spread raw sewage across its surface, transforming a place of dreams into a health hazard.
Despite officially closing the court in May, Mbulawa regularly sees children climbing back over the sagging fence and risking their wellbeing just to reclaim a moment of play. Their determination reveals both the resilience and desperation that thread through daily life in Imizamo Yethu. Even as adults warn them of the dangers, the children persist. “This was our safe area, our happy area,” Mbulawa reflects, his words capturing the bittersweet pride the community feels in its stubborn refusal to let hardship extinguish hope.
The urgency of Imizamo Yethu’s plight presses heavily on longtime residents such as Andrew Davey. He fears the consequences of a full-blown public health disaster if officials continue to stall. Davey points out that the sewage system—already too small to handle the community’s needs—buckles under the pressure of a rapidly growing population. “The system is basically crashing,” he warns, drawing parallels to historical moments when urban expansion outpaced basic infrastructure. His perspective echoes lessons from the crowded cities of 19th-century Europe, where sanitation crises often erupted before authorities modernized public works.
The City of Cape Town recognizes the complexity of this predicament. In an official communication dated 20 May, city leaders outlined the multiple drivers behind the chronic sewage blockages and overflows. Chief among these is the relentless population growth that has seen Imizamo Yethu become far denser than planners ever anticipated. As more residents move in, the volume of wastewater surges, overwhelming the modest network of pipes and treatment facilities. Further complicating matters, the city redirected household greywater away from stormwater drains—a move intended to protect local rivers and the ocean from contamination. Ironically, this well-meaning policy has placed additional strain on an already fragile sewer system.
The challenges do not end there. Illegal dumping of household waste and foreign objects, as well as makeshift dwellings connected to the outdated sewer lines, routinely cause blockages and breakdowns. The situation mirrors scenes found in informal settlements around the globe, where residents’ ingenuity in building and adapting often collides with the limits of neglected infrastructure. These daily disruptions compound the sense of uncertainty and have made life in Imizamo Yethu a constant negotiation between resourcefulness and risk.
The City of Cape Town has proposed a long-term fix: an upgrade to the main sewer line along the Disa River’s eastern boundary. Unfortunately, real relief remains distant. The city has committed funds for the feasibility study phase—an essential first step—but this is only due to begin in 2028/29. For residents like Mbulawa, such timelines offer little solace. Bureaucratic processes move at a glacial pace, while the community’s needs grow more urgent by the day.
A stroll through Imizamo Yethu highlights the high price of this delay. Families construct makeshift bridges from wooden planks, scrap metal, and discarded bricks—improvised crossings that span stagnant streams of sewage. These structures, while a testament to human adaptability, also underscore the profound failure of official systems. The scenario evokes urban theorist Jane Jacobs, who championed the creativity of city dwellers but also cautioned against the perils of neglect and underinvestment. Each plank and cobbled walkway stands as a silent chronicle of both survival and resilience, marking the daily struggle to preserve a measure of dignity.
Gary Krweqe, a community leader with three decades in Imizamo Yethu, voices a mix of resignation and resolve. He describes a familiar cycle: residents report sewage overflows, but assistance rarely arrives in a timely fashion. “We just have to live with it,” Krweqe says, summing up the hard-won stoicism that pervades the settlement. The population has surged since his early days in the neighborhood, yet the infrastructure remains unchanged, strained to breaking by the demands of so many more people.
The arrival of winter magnifies the crisis. Heavy rains trigger floods that overwhelm both the stormwater and sewage networks, forcing contaminated water back into homes and down the township’s crowded lanes. Loyiso Skoti, who chairs the Imizamo Yethu Development Forum, describes repeated but fruitless attempts to alert city officials to the deteriorating situation. Every rainy season brings new waves of pollution, as the swollen Disa River carries untreated waste directly into the ocean at Hout Bay beach. This cycle starkly illustrates the inextricable link between urban settlements, infrastructure failures, and the surrounding environment.
A recent city report makes clear just how dire the situation has become. Water quality in the Disa River has sharply declined, especially in the lower stretches near residential areas. The main source of contamination is untreated sewage that escapes the failing infrastructure and runs directly into the stormwater network. Seasonal dry spells slow the river’s flow, further concentrating pollutants. The Disa, once a vital lifeline, now functions largely as a conduit for waste—a fate shared by many urban rivers overwhelmed by unchecked growth and insufficient planning.
Dr. Zahid Badroodien, the City’s Mayco member for Water and Sanitation, describes the Disa as an “urban river” beset by relentless pollution from multiple sources. Not only does household waste contribute to the problem, but so does runoff from poorly serviced areas, waste from domestic animals, and even grazing horses. To address these intertwined challenges, the City has partnered with the Hout Bay Rivers Catchment Forum to launch a comprehensive study. Their Hout Bay Pollution Abatement Strategy and Action Plan aims to coordinate future interventions, drawing on technical expertise and community participation.
Municipal statements highlight ongoing technical problems, including frequent blockages at the Disa River Pump Station caused by foreign debris. These incidents trigger mechanical failures and widespread spills, compounding the contamination of both public spaces and recreational facilities like the basketball court. While city officials have promised a formal assessment of the court to determine what repairs it needs, years of inaction have left residents skeptical.
Imizamo Yethu’s story echoes struggles faced by many communities on the margins of rapidly expanding cities worldwide. Residents wage a daily battle against neglect, yet their spirit endures. The children refuse to surrender their dreams of basketball glory, even as they risk illness for a taste of normalcy. Adults demand the dignity owed to every citizen, building bridges—literal and figurative—across the streams of crisis that run through their neighborhood.
From the polluted Disa River to the improvised walkways spanning sewage flows, the people of Imizamo Yethu showcase resilience, adaptability, and unyielding hope. They wait for solutions yet unrealized, determined that their community’s story will not be written solely in terms of hardship, but also in the courage and solidarity with which they confront it. Their demands for justice and humane living conditions remain urgent, echoing far beyond the green slopes of Hout Bay to all corners where infrastructure, dignity, and the right to a safe home intersect.
Imizamo Yethu struggles mainly with broken sewage pipes, frequent sewage overflows, and an outdated sewer system that cannot cope with rapid population growth. These issues lead to health risks, environmental pollution, and unsafe living conditions, impacting community spaces such as the basketball court and everyday life for residents.
The basketball court, once the vibrant heart of Imizamo Yethu’s youth activities, has become hazardous due to sewage blockages and spills. Raw sewage regularly floods the court area, forcing its closure in May. Despite this, children often risk their health by sneaking back onto the court, showing their resilience and love for play amid difficult circumstances.
The sewer system was designed for a smaller population and is overwhelmed by Imizamo Yethu’s rapid growth. Additional factors include illegal dumping of waste, foreign objects causing blockages, makeshift dwellings connected to outdated sewage lines, and changes in city policies like redirecting greywater to protect rivers, which ironically add strain to the sewer network.
The City of Cape Town has planned a major upgrade to the main sewer line along the Disa River. However, the process is slow; feasibility studies are only scheduled to begin in 2028/29. Meanwhile, residents rely on makeshift bridges and community efforts to cope with sewage overflows as the city works through bureaucratic delays.
Untreated sewage frequently contaminates the Disa River, which flows into Hout Bay beach, harming water quality and local ecosystems. Flooding during winter exacerbates pollution by pushing contaminated water into homes and streets. The polluted Disa River, once a community lifeline, now acts as a conduit for waste, reflecting broader environmental challenges faced by urban settlements.
Residents demonstrate remarkable resilience by building makeshift infrastructure like bridges to navigate sewage flows and persistently advocating for clean water, safe homes, and dignity. Community leaders and youth organizers emphasize the importance of maintaining hope and solidarity, pushing for justice and improved living conditions despite years of neglect and slow municipal response.
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