Cogta MEC highlights poor public participation in Govan Mbeki Municipality

Mr Mandla Msibi, MEC for Cogta, raised concerns over the poor public participation in the Govan Mbeki Municipality, Ridge Times reports.

He said over the past three years, the municipality has been marred by violent protests due to its poor public participation programmes that have failed to engage communities regarding service delivery demands.

The municipality does not have a public participation strategy in place and this has affected its public participation.

“The municipality doesn’t have an engagement programme with communities, nor a public participation policy.“There is no working relationship between CDWs and the municipality.”

Mr Collen Nkosi, Ward committee member, said the members are hopeful that Section 139(1)(b) will bring the change that they have been anticipating all these years.

He agreed that public participation has been poor and he hopes that the provincial and national intervention will make things better.

“Since 2016 we have been writing reports, but nothin was attended to until now.

“We picketed and submitted memorandums to the office of the speaker without luck. At this stage, we are waiting for a directive on how we are going to work since the municipality has been placed under administration.”