A FAMILY IS FORCED TO LIVE IN RAW SEWAGE. THEIR PLEAS FOR HELP WERE MET WITH SILENCE. NOW, A CANCER DIAGNOSIS MAKES EVERY SECOND A DEATH SENTENCE.
For over a year, Alicia Koekemoer has begged her own government to save her family. Raw sewage has REPEATEDLY flooded her Algoa Park yard, a toxic swamp of human waste bubbling at her back door. The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality did nothing. Now, her husband Rickus is fighting acute leukaemia—his immune system shattered. Doctors warn ANY bacteria could KILL him. The very sewage the city ignores is now a weapon pointed at his heart.
The photo supplied by the family shows them standing together, a portrait of a family trapped in a nightmare they didn’t create. The evidence is undeniable: another photo shows the broken, filthy pipes on their own property—a problem the city swore was fixed, then abandoned.
This is not an accident. It is a PATTERN of betrayal. Every time officials did a “quick fix,” the sewage returned. The family dug up the pipes THEMSELVES. They scooped out the waste with their own hands. Their puppies got sick and DIED. Their four-year-old son was hospitalized with a severe, mysterious infection. They hired a private plumber, only to be told the city was responsible. THEIR CALLS FOR HELP WERE MET WITH SHRUGGED SHOULDER.
Who benefits from this silence? Who gets to look away while a family fights for basic human dignity? The municipality collects rates and taxes but delivers poison. They claim to care, but their inaction screams that this family’s life is worth less than the cost of a proper repair.
This family has been failed at every single turn, forced into a war for sanitation while fearing for a father’s life.
This is what happens when the people in power decide your suffering is not their problem.



