Executive Mayor of Johannesburg Kabelo Gwamanda has acknowledged that service delivery at the Diepkloof Hostel is non-existent.

Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda on Wednesday came face to face with the squalid conditions Diepkloof Hostel residents have had to endure for decades.

"The work of local government is to deliver services. There is no service delivery here. We have to start afresh," Gwamanda said during a visit to the hostel following weeks of service delivery protests, which turned violent in the past few days.

"Your anger, residents of Diepkloof, is warranted," Gwamanda said. "I don't know why it has taken us so long to tackle the challenges that you are facing."

Gwamanda expressed shock as he came face to face with the hardships the residents of the hostel face.

"I saw the toilets, but I will not speak about the toilets because that is awful," he said.

For decades now, Diepkloof Hostel dwellers have been living in abject squalor. They have no electricity and are forced to connect illegally to nearby power sources.

The residents have also had to make do without water for years, and despite many residents having registered for RDP houses in the 1990s, the hostel has remained their permanent home.

For the past three weeks, the residents have been out on the streets to protest...