Residents Association folds

I AND other ARA committee members have resigned and we have had no volunteers to fill these positions.

We have resigned because of frustration with the lack of response from the AbaQulusi Local Municipality (ALM) and also the lack of support from the community.

We have had no response from the Mayor to our repeated polite requests for a meeting with her. We are prepared to work together with the ALM but we are not prepared to beg them.

The rest of the committee are busy with their jobs or business commitments. In the current harsh economic climate they do not really have the time to commit to ARA duties. It was because of these circumstances that the ARA committee has decided to amalgamate with Afriforum, the national citizens rights organisation.

Afriforum is having its Vryheid Branch AGM starting at 6:00pm at the NG Wes church hall on Wednesday, July 8. May I suggest that we have a meeting for all ARA members at 5:30pm in the same hall to give them a chance to ratify the committee’s decision to amalgamate and hand over our nearly R12,000 funds to Afriforum.

This will avoid future complaints that we (the ARA committee) have acted without properly consulting members. The good people of Vryheid have put their trust in us and we must be seen to wind up the ARA in a democratic manner.

Afriforum is a national civil rights organization with a much stronger capacity to force municipalities to perform their service delivery duties effectively, so we ask all our members to support them. Where the ARA could only make requests, Afriforum has full time organisers and teams of lawyers who can hit municipalities with court orders. You will learn more about that at the meeting.