Mayor Richard Mbatha has strongly refuted claims that the Department of Human Settlements gave the municipality R400 000 to hold a function to hand over title deeds to Sithembile residents.
Speaking at an ANC rally in Sithembile last Friday, Housing MEC, Ravi Pillay, said he ‘was furious to discover that the title deeds had been previously handed out by Mayor Mbatha’. He demanded to know what had happened to the R400 000.
However, Mayor Mbatha told the Courier that ‘R400 000 was never received’.
“I took the initiative through this office to finally hand the title deeds to the residents and restore their dignity through property ownership.
“Realising that the previous ANC-led administration failed to do this while in power, the MEC is opportunistically coming to grind the propaganda machinery to woe electorates since that Ward is holding by-elections on Wednesday, September 27.
“Why did the MEC not issue the title deeds while the ANC was still in power?
“State resources are exploited by the likes of MEC Pillay who doesn’t view the public office as an honour but as an electioneering tool.