The City of Mbombela’s (CoM) executive mayor, Sibongile Makhushe-Mazibuko, has announced the municipality’s intent to reopen its fleet workshops with the goal of creating job opportunities.

She said the municipality plans to recruit TVET College students for practical training to prepare them for their trade examinations and enable them to start independent businesses.

Makhushe-Mazibuko spoke to Lowvelder shortly after she unveiled the municipality’s new fleet of vehicles and service delivery equipment at Mbombela Stadium on Monday, August 11.

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The municipality also donated cattle to each of the 10 traditional authorities under the CoM in a community-development move to reinforce relations and partnerships with the municipality.

The CoM spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, confirmed that the executive mayor formally handed over the new fleet of municipal equipment, aimed at enhancing service delivery across all four regions of the municipality.

The new fleet also includes a number of bakkies.“This milestone represents a substantial investment in the city’s infrastructure and underscores the administration’s commitment to improving the quality of life of all residents,” he said.

The equipment handed over includes six graders, two CAT TLBs, two 10-cubic-metre Nissan trucks, 18 Isuzu double-cab bakkies, two light delivery vehicles and two jet-patchers.

Ngala said these assets will be distributed equitably among the four municipal regions to promote balanced development and timely service delivery.

According to him, the graders, TLBs and jet-patchers will be instrumental in road maintenance operations, enabling a faster response to pothole repairs and road rehabilitation, as well as improving overall road safety.

Ngala explained that the trucks and bakkies will strengthen the municipality’s capacity to efficiently provide essential services such as water supply, refuse collection, sanitation and electricity distribution.

“The City of Mbombela remains dedicated to delivering quality services and advancing collective growth within all communities for a sustainable and prosperous future,” said Ngala.

“All these assets were bought by the city, with the approval of council, to build internal capacity to respond to needs and enhance service delivery,” he added.

Makhushe-Mazibuko said, “When I took office, I requested that we start building state capacity so we can re-gravel roads, patch potholes, cut grass and fix our own fleet and equipment in-house to reduce reliance on contracted services.”

She said she was pleased the City has realised its goal, adding that the next step is to reopen the City’s workshops – a project that is already 80% operationalised.