ALEXANDRA, Gauteng — The Alexandra Pikitup strike crisis has transformed one of Africa’s most densely populated townships into a landscape of rotting garbage, open sewage, and crumbling infrastructure, precisely as citizens attempt to register for the upcoming local government elections. With the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) wrapping up its final voter registration weekend, the stark contrast between democratic participation and municipal neglect has never been more visible in this northern Johannesburg community.
A Township Drowning in Neglect
Weeks into the Pikitup strike, waste collection across Alexandra has ground to a halt. Rubbish now accumulates on virtually every street corner, while illegal dumping compounds the problem. The situation is particularly grim near the Marlboro train station, a major transport hub where thousands of commuters pass daily, only to be greeted by towering heaps of refuse rather than a functional public space.
The deterioration extends far beyond uncollected household bins. Residents in Zone 4 have raised alarms about burst water pipes, while potholes and visibly degraded infrastructure scar the roads. Raw sewage overflows daily, running openly through streets where families walk and children play. Community members report a growing rat population drawn to the mounting waste, alongside mounting fears of waterborne disease.
Despite repeated complaints lodged with municipal officials, residents say nothing has been done. The prevailing sentiment is that the state of Alexandra’s streets reflects years of systemic neglect in service delivery.
“We Deserve Proper Service Delivery”
Jethro Mokoena, a longtime Alexandra resident, painted a blunt picture of daily life under the ongoing waste collection paralysis.
“For Pikitup, it’s almost now weeks they’re not even collecting, and you can tell yourself what’s going to happen to our health,” Mokoena said. He stressed that children are no longer free to play safely, and that the proliferation of rats amid the rotting rubbish is inevitable. “We are very upset about the service delivery from the city. I don’t know whether the city is taking service delivery serious.”
Mokoena acknowledged a common criticism leveled at Alexandra — that some residents do not pay for municipal services — but pushed back firmly: “We deserve to have service delivery, and a proper one.”
Turning to the electoral moment, Mokoena urged every resident to register and vote, framing the ballot as the only viable path toward change. “We need the right people who can take the city serious,” he said. He criticized the current mayor as being “all over the show” during campaign season while delivering nothing substantive to the community.
His core demand is accountability. “Whoever is going to be mayor or ward councillor must be on the ground. We don’t want those who are voted in and the next thing they are sitting in the office, not going to the people,” Mokoena stated. He noted that political parties flood Alexandra’s streets before elections, only to vanish entirely once voting concludes.
Mokoena issued a direct message to the mayor: “Could you please come down to Alex and come and see what is happening. The mayor must start taking service delivery serious. Come down and talk to the community.”
Overburdened Infrastructure and a Scrapped Community Solution
The Chairperson of the Alexandra Water and Sanitation committee, provided critical context on why the sewage crisis has become chronic. He explained that the existing infrastructure in areas such as Extension 7 was never engineered to handle the current population density.
“I don’t know whether the developer understood that maybe in 10 or 15 years, Extension 7 will be the way it is today,” he said. “The infrastructure that is here now cannot carry the volume of people using water and sanitation.”
He also revealed a deeply frustrating chapter in the township’s fight against filth. He described a grassroots initiative known as “Block by Block,” in which Alexandra residents took personal responsibility for their environment, rising at 6:00 AM to sweep and clean their streets voluntarily, without any payment.
“Even this rubbish was not supposed to be here, because people committed themselves,” he explained, adding that he personally participates in the daily cleanup using his own time and resources. However, the initiative was shut down after officials in government offices reportedly disapproved of the model. Instead of employing the local women and residents already doing the work, the municipality brought in outside workers.
“If they were implementing the Block by Block, things would have changed,” the chairperson asserted.
Democracy Beside the Dump
Perhaps the most jarring image of the weekend is the placement of IEC voter registration points just meters from the largest rubbish piles. Residents attempting to register for the local government elections are forced to walk past flowing sewage and decomposing waste to reach registration officials.
For many in Alexandra, the decision to participate in the electoral process is inseparable from the service delivery failures they endure. Illegal dumping, poor sanitation, overcrowding, and the absence of basic waste collection have become the defining issues shaping voter intent. The community’s message is unified: they will vote, but they expect the leaders they elect to confront the crisis head-on rather than retreat behind office doors.
As the IEC’s registration weekend draws to a close, Alexandra remains caught between the promise of democratic renewal and the grim reality of a Pikitup strike that shows no sign of resolution — leaving residents to navigate mountains of garbage and rivers of sewage in their pursuit of a cleaner, more accountable future.
