-
-
Sewege and rubbish from the alleyway between Esselen and florence building
-
The leaking plumbing fom Florence building causes a massive stink for Witsies living at Esselen residence
-
Management and students from Esselen residence are unsure who owns and runs the Florence building
-
A view of the Florence building
-
An Esselen resident looks at Florence building from her window
-
A view of the Florence building from a window on the second-floor of Esselen
-
Despite the conditions surrounding the building, Witsies say living at Esselen say they feel at home and are happy at the res.
A SMELL of raw sewage tackles you the moment you step off the bus into Esselen street. On windy days, the sewage becomes airborne and sprays you with a misty combination of human urine and faeces . [pullquote align=”right”]“Last year someone from Florence building threw a plastic bag full of shit out their window and it landed in our laundry area”[/pullquote]
Complaints from students about the bad smell, stagnant sewage and uncollected waste piling up at Florence building next door to Esselen residence, spilled over this week as some Witsies living there vented their frustration on twitter.
Dion Mkhonza ran a hand across his face as he relived his experience of the strange rains.
Strange rains
“You come off the bus and this water hits your face. You think it’s rain first but then you see that pipe and it’s spraying sewage from that building,” Mkhonza said pointing at the dilapidated Florence building separated from Esselen residence only by a filthy alleyway swimming with rubbish and ankle deep with sewage.
Not only does human excrement rain from the skies, it also flies in through windows.
“Last year someone from Florence building threw a plastic bag full of shit out their window and it landed in our laundry area. “Ne nkare ho shweli motho (It was like somebody had died),” said a resident, who asked not to be named.
Peeping Toms
The student also said that on Monday, a man was staring at her through the window as she came out of the shower.
Another student, Manda-Lee Debathe, 4th year B.Ed, said the same thing had happened to her. [pullquote]“In that building anyone arrives and says they are boss,”[/pullquote]
“When we are dressing in the morning there are guys standing at their balconies with their coffee watching,” Debathe said.
Accommodation officer in charge of Esselen, Elsie Mooke, confirmed that residents of the adjoining Florence building, formerly a private hospital before being converted into residential apartments, often threw out rubbish, bath water and excrement from their windows and into Esselen.
“It’s really dirty and it’s really affecting the area. Wits has sent the environment people here but it didn’t help…Students can’t open their windows because of the terrible smell and the mosquitoes, and they can only get fresh air from the passage,” Mooke said.
Owner gone AWOL
Mooke said attempts to deal with the problem had hit a wall because no one knows who the owner of the building is.
Together with another Esselen resident and house committee member, Kelobogile Sebopelo, Mooke described the fears they had in dealing with anyone from the Florence building.
“Last year they came looking for me and I acted like I didn’t know anything.” he reported.
“In that building anyone arrives and says they are boss,” Mooke said, warning this Wits Vuvuzela journalist to be careful and not to attempt to enter the Florence building.
Sebopelo told a more troubling story.
“There was a guy. Wits was trying to buy the building but then the guy was stabbed over there,” Sebopelo said, pointing beyond her 2nd floor window to the intersection adjacent to Constitutional Hill.
Accommodation officer Mooke was reluctant to speak about the stabbing incident, preferring to point out the good things about Esselen rather than the bad.
“There is warmth inside here,” she said.
Mkhonza, in his third year as an Esselen resident and a member of the house committee, said they had been promised many times that Esselen would be closed down and moved to Parktown but the promise had not materialised.
Place to call home
The education student was adamant, however, that all was not flying faeces at Esselen.
“When I moved here in first year I thought it would be bad until you see other people.
“It is the people who live here that keep you here, not the building,” Mkhonza said.
