Six months after Councillor Thabani Mlotshwa was sworn in as the new councilor of Ward 3 in Sithembile location, community members feel as though he has not done anything for his ward.
Frustrated members of the community signed a petition requesting all 13 councillors under Endumeni Municipality to come and account or clarify what the community has done wrong to suffer such rejection from the Municipality.
They feel like they have been sidelined when it comes to service delivery. The following concerns were outlined in the petition sent to all Endumeni Councillors: the unfinished Media Centre, clearance of rates as it was promised by the ruling part of the Ward, issuing of title deeds for Sithembile residents, electricity meters, cleaning of Sithembile, employment and job opportunities and the renovations of family units.
“Firstly our own Ward councillor has never called a community meeting for the past six months; whenever there are meetings here he comes with Mayor Mbatha and his entourage and does not address any issues of importance.
“Instead, the Mayor pushes his own agenda of promoting his political party and forgets that the community as a whole does not consist of IFP members only” said a very frustrated community member.
Secondly, we are demanding answers from the Municipality of which they have shown no interest in answering as they have not got back to us for the past 20 working days, although we have given them more than enough time. A petition consisting of 466 signatures was hand-delivered to the municipality and it was emailed to councillors on March 5 outlining the communities concerns.
Previous to that, a letter was sent to Mayor Mbatha on February 6 stipulating the very same concerns. In the letter it was written that “we are giving you 24 hours as from today to come and meet with us, failing to do so we are going to ask for authority from the court to do an official strike, that is not a treath it is a promise”.
The Mayor never responded to that letter nor addressed it when he came to a meeting recently in Sithembile. The Mayor was approached for comment but at the time of going to print nothing has been received.
