Greater Tzaneen and Greater Letaba municipalities begin the year with protests
Residents barricaded the main gate of the municipality and started protesting for service delivery.
It has been a week filled with protests for the Greater Tzaneen and the Greater Letaba municipalities.
On Wednesday, January 9, the Greater Tzaneen Municipality woke to protests by their general workers demanding that they be given new contracts and reinstated to their jobs. The municipality
stated that the contract with the service provider that had hired the general workers had ended in December, 2018. The protest also took place the following day as the workers were not pleased
with the response they were given by the municipality the previous day.
READ MORE: GTM strike halted by High Court
In the wake of Friday, January 11, the Tshabelammatswale community took to the Greater Letaba Municipality (GLM) to protest.
The residents of this community barricaded the main gate of the municipality and started protesting for service delivery.
It is said by the employees at the GLM that the road at Mandela Park in Kgapane had been slightly closed off that morning, indicating that there would be a protest in that area, but they did not
anticipate that the residents would come and lock them into their place of work.
READ MORE: Tzaneen: GTM workers want MM out
a week prior to protest that took place on Friday. She further stated that the municipality had been making attempts to try and meet these demands, as the community itself started off small, in an
area that was not meant for residential occupation.
“It is only recently after we noticed how big the community was becoming, that we included it in the IDP for service delivery,” said Maenetja, “however, they need to bear with us because as a
municipality, we have back-log that is preventing us to deliver services to them on time but we are committed to including them as one of the priorities that the municipality has and attends to,”
she added.
Amongst some of the demands made by the community, they have asked that they get paved roads, water and for the completion of the RDP houses that were being built.
“With the issue of the RDP houses that were left unfinished, the municipality cannot be held responsible as there is a service provider that deals with building and overseeing that these RDP
houses are completed as scheduled. But we will be engaging with the people responsible to ensure that the community knows where they stand with their houses,” said Maenetja.
