MBOMBELA – Community representatives walked out of an integrated development plan (IDP) meeting with the municipality last week. They say they were denied the opportunity to ask questions about the budget – questions to garner information to report back to their communities about what they were getting for their tax money.
The zonal consultative meeting which took place recently was the first of five to be held for various wards. It was meant to address the issues to be prioritised in the budget for the financial year of 2015/16. This year’s financial projects were also presented. The councillors of the wards attended, as well as their ward committees. The latter were denied the opportunity to ask questions, by the chairman of the meeting, Mr Kenneth Mkhonto, ANC councillor in Ward 14.
Mr Piet Skead, who serves on the Ward 30 committee but also heads the White River Ratepayers Association and AfriForum’s branch in town, said he was furious when he was denied the opportunity to speak because he served on a ward committee. DA caucus leader Mr Jo Koster, playing no official part in the meeting, said as a point of order, that ward committee members were also representatives of the community’s interests and pointed out to Mkhonto that they should be allowed to ask questions.
But Skead eventually walked out. “It turned into a mudslinging contest between the DA and ANC,” he said afterwards. “We were initially invited to the meeting to discuss the budget but they wouldn’t allow questions.Ward 15 DA councillor Ms Felicity Lange also walked out and declined to speak to the newspaper.
Mr Theuns Steyn, however, was one of the few community members with no ward-committee connections in attendance. He represented the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT) and was allowed to ask questions. He said he personally found the answers he received from officials inadequate.
The initial announcement of the meeting was for the community to interact with executive mayor
Cllr Sibusiso Mathonsi and speaker Ms Jesta Sidell, neither of whom attended. Instead two members of the mayoral committee, Ms Constance Maseko of infrastructure development and Ms Bhusi Mdhluli of human settlements stood in. Municipal spokesman Mr Joseph Ngala said the Zonal IDP meetings were aimed to empower ward committee members and community development workers by providing them with the necessary information to use when they convened meetings in their wards.
“It might have been an oversight on the part of the chairperson of the session to suppress them, due to the fact that they are part of the system.” Koster said refusing their questions put them at a disadvantage with the people they represent. “And then people wonder what councillors are doing for them? It is not always obvious.”
Ms Janitta Pieterse, manager of KLCBT, said, “We have a good relationship with officials in Mbombela. But gaps in the bureaucratic processes delay follow-through.”
The chamber sent a letter to the mayor outlining its concerns. These are: the International Fresh Produce Market, R400 million of municipal infrastructure grants having gone unspent, the implementation of water conservation and demand management programme and other water supply and sewerage project issues; potential shortcomings in roads and storm-water projects; concerns over the prioritisation of projects such as installing smart meters and a computer system at swimming pools; squatter camps not being proclaimed; the environmental impact of planned grading of open spaces, and a lack of ablution facilities in the CBD.
