‘I am literally dying’: Boipatong resident blames raw sewage for bronchitis

A Boipatong resident says raw sewage flooding around her home has left her struggling to breathe and with a medical report linking her condition to continuous exposure to sewage odours. The resident told reporters she feels she is “literally dying” in her house as the community continues to battle recurring sewer failures.

Living with raw sewage

The 63-year-old resident, identified by The Citizen as Masetumo Marago, told reporters she has lived in Boipatong for about 50 years and that the sewage problem around her home began about two years ago. She lives with her 93-year-old father and her 25-year-old daughter.

“I am literally dying in my home… and nobody cares. For me to step out of my house, I have to put on four face masks and a handkerchief,”

Medical report links bronchitis to sewage odours

According to The Citizen, a medical report dated 11 September from a private medical facility in Vanderbijlpark states Marago presented with chest tightness, difficulty breathing and nasal irritation and that a chest X-ray showed evidence of bronchitis.

The report, which The Citizen has seen, recorded a possible “direct causality” between Marago’s bronchitis and her reported continuous exposure to sewage odours at her residence. The report is quoted in The Citizen:

“She presented with symptoms of tight chest, difficulty breathing and nasal passage irritation every time she steps outside her home… A direct causality can therefore be linked for bronchitis secondary to continuous exposure sewage odour at her place of residence,” the report, which The Citizen has seen, says.

Residents say municipal fixes are temporary

Marago told The Citizen the problem began with a manhole at the nearby Makapane Primary School and that work to clear a blocked sewer there led to a blockage affecting nearby homes. She said sewage subsequently spilled into about 10 properties along Batloung Street.

Marago said she sought help from the municipality but received only temporary measures. She told The Citizen:

“All our efforts to be rescued from the crisis have been in vain. Recently, I went to the municipality, desperate for help, but all I got was an admission that this was a serious problem but nothing has been done. All I am subjected to are temporary fixes just to shut me up,”

Calls for permanent engineering solutions

Residents, supported by human rights activist Modise Molefe, have raised concerns that repeated clearing of blockages is not solving an underlying infrastructure problem. Molefe said an immediate blockage affecting Marago’s property was cleared but that sewage continued to back up, and that Marago installed a pipe to divert overflowing wastewater into the public road.

Molefe said the problem extended beyond Batloung Street, naming other streets where homes had experienced persistent sewer issues, and urged authorities to carry out a comprehensive engineering assessment of the sewer network serving the affected parts of Boipatong. He is quoted by The Citizen:

“I am completely tired of running in circles with a municipal and Section 63 intervention system that ignores its people, while 10 families live with raw sewage,”

Molefe also alleged that another resident had suffered severe diarrhoea and that a reported sewage spill had led to hospitalisations. The Citizen notes that one of Molefe’s allegations about a death related to sewage conditions has not been independently verified.

Wider context and response

The Citizen reports that Emfuleni municipality recorded thousands of sewer-related complaints in its 2024-25 annual report and that national government has been intervening in Emfuleni under Section 63 of the Water Services Act since 2021. The article says vacuum trucks have been deployed but that activists want permanent repairs and a public timetable for those works.

Photographs credited to Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen accompany the reporting, including images described by The Citizen as showing a pool of sewage in France section in Boipatong on 30 September 2026 and raw sewage flooding streets and yards.

The Citizen reported that the municipality had not responded to questions by the time of publishing.