MAYOR IN HOT SEAT
Angry protesters marched from the Lydenburg Magistrate's Court to Thaba Chweu Local Municipality (TCLM) last Thursday. They said they were irritated and fed up with corruption.
The protest sprouted from a memorandum handed in during a protest in 2019 by the United Youth Forum, concerning the allocation of affordable housing for the youth. At the time the protesters said they had had enough of mismanagement. The memorandum stated that housing is allegedly allocated to illegal nationals from Lesotho and Mozambique.
“We are marching against our municipality because we feel they don’t give us anything. They ignore service delivery and corrupt officials, and pay salaries to those who don’t do their work,” said a community leader, Sego Segoba, on Thursday.
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Ezrom Mkhabela, spokesperson of TCLM, issued a press release on Monday stating that the municipality was surprised by the protest action. However, the executive mayor, Fridah Nkadimeng, took her time to listen to their demands. She requested the protesters to submit their demands in writing to her office, and said that they must send a delegation as dealing with a group was disruptive and ineffective. The protesters insisted that they be addressed as a group, and that a delegation would not work as they have trust issues among themselves, from previous experiences. To avoid further tension, Nkadimeng agreed to meet with them and to submit feedback in writing.
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“TCLM understands that service delivery issues are emotive in nature. However, we condemn protest action that lock out employees from rendering a service to the public. Such actions also deny residents their right to access services they are entitled to. The public has the right to protest, however, they must desist from engaging in disruptive activities that hinder the municipality from rendering services to residents,” said Mkhabela.
