Resident’s association in crisis

THE ABAQULUSI Residents Association (ARA) may this week very possibly “hit the wall”, fold up its constitution, and enter the Vryheid history book as a failed good intention. The association, which was originally formed to look after the interests of the town’s ratepayers, but whose name and mandate was altered to accommodate the interests of all AbaQulusi Municipality residents, seems to be dying from chronic apathy.

At a Special General Meeting held last Tuesday, to which only about a dozen people turned out, the ARA’s Chairperson Jan Combrinck said, “When something hits the fan then people wake up, but we can’t carry on the way we are going”. He asked the meeting for guidance, saying too that business commitments meant that he could not continue to chair the association.

He said that the ARA wanted to be in a position which allowed it to approach the municipality and say, “We represent Vryheid’, but that with only 21 paid-up members “that is a joke.”

A proposal from the floor was that the ARA closed, but upon further discussion it was decided to hold one further meeting in an attempt to revive the ARA. This meeting will be held this Thursday, August 14, at 5:30pm, at the Risen Son Academy Hall on the corner of Utrecht and West streets.

If the meeting fails to generate residents’ support, it would seem that these same residents will be left with no non-political representation in their dealings with the municipality.

This, they may not mind, may not even notice until the water supply fails again, or the street lights go out and are not fixed, or the potholes never are filled, or….