Social grants, counselling and pauper burials are just some of the services the Pienaar community has not received following the closure of the Department of Social Development’s (DSD) offices over two weeks ago.

The community accuses the department of not doing things according to the book, and the department accuses the community of locking its gates without giving tangible reasons.

The provincial spokesperson for the DSD, Centie Ngubane, said the department was aware of the closure of this Msogwaba branch office. “This follows an incident that occurred on October 29, in which a group from the community arrived at the office and locked the gates to the premises, thus preventing officials from gaining access into their working stations,” said Ngubane. “There were no reasons given for this act, and the department is in the process of engaging with various stakeholders with the view of resolving this matter speedily.”

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He said the officials who were stationed at this office were advised to report to neighbouring offices, while the community was kindly requested to report to their nearest offices to access services.

Sthembiso Sithole, the chairperson of the ANC Youth League in Zone B, told this publication that a youth delegation had gone to the social development offices in Msogwaba Trust to establish who had locked the gates. “The security guards told us that angry members of the community had locked the gates, and they even directed us to the specific people involved. We went to them and asked for their reasons for locking the gates, and discovered this was related to the same challenges we already knew about,” said Sithole.

He said that among these issues were the two youth centres that have been not functional since they had been built nearly a decade ago.

One of the centres was in KaDaantjie and the other in Msogwaba Trust. KaDaantjie and Msogwaba Trust both fall under Pienaar and comprises two tribal authorities, namely Mpakeni and Msogwaba. Sithole said there had been advertisements with the intention of opening these two centres, but he claims that the hiring processes were questionable.

“The community leaders claim that the DSD officials filled the management positions at the centres with their friends and associates, ignoring the agreed upon hiring guidelines. The Pienaar community and the youth centre boards had previously resolved that qualified individuals from Zone B should be prioritised for these positions, with external candidates considered only if certain skills were not available locally. Yet it appears this resolution was disregarded, sparking accusations of favouritism and exclusion,” said Sithole.

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He said the community demanded that the current hiring processes be scrapped and restarted with oversight from the youth boards, the DSD and the City of Mbombela Youth Development Office.

However, another source indicated that the DSD had not been present when this resolution by the boards had been made.

“The department wishes to apologise to the community of Msogwaba for the inconvenience caused by this disruption and also commits to finding an urgent and amicable solution to these challenges,” concluded Ngubane.