Mayor to write to Ramaphosa after admitting to failed merger

The executive mayor of J.B. Marks, Kgotso Khumalo admitted to a hostile crowd in Ventersdorp that the merger of the two municipalities has failed.

He said he would be writing to the president and the municipal demarcation board to reverse it.

‘We expected R500 million for the merger but we only received R13 million,’ he told the crowd. He was responding to mounting pressure and calls to reverse the amalgamation of the two municipalities.

The meeting with the Ventersdorp residents served as feedback on the memorandum of demands they submitted to the mayor two weeks ago.

Despite scrapping the 95/5 electricity policy last week and assuring the crowd that the N14 mixed development documents have been signed and are awaiting Sanral approval, the community was still dissatisfied. Some hurled despicable insults at him, which cannot be published in this community newspaper. They also refused to be addressed by the managers from the municipality. Some of the elderly sitting in the tent were shocked at the chaos and ongoing taunts by the younger people towards the mayor.

Khumalo told his audience that he had no power to remove the ward councillors of Ventersdorp as the power lies with the political party that appointed them.
He added that all the old age centres would be exempt from paying for services. He once again urged the unemployed to register as indigents so they could receive free electricity and water.

Khumalo said he had consulted the CFO about writing off the debt that the Ventersdorp residents owed the municipality. However, there are not enough funds in the municipal coffers to do so,’ he said.

Naledi Rampa, one of the community leaders said 80 per cent of the community is unemployed. He touched on a number of concerns, including the AG’s report on fruitless and wasteful expenditure and the Thapvic report that has not been tabled before the council. Another concern was the illegal meter boxes that cost R9 300 each.

‘Being a councillor is not a profession – it is a temporary position,’ says Rampa

Rampa urged the councillors to perform their duties. ‘Being a councillor is not a profession – it is a temporary position. You must do things right,’ he said. He also bemoaned the fact that Ventersdorp Hospital is to be converted into a clinic.

In the past, the community has also called for a flat rate to be paid for services. Sello Dassie, another community leader, suggested an amount of R50.
The rest of the meeting disintegrated with Dassie announcing that he did not know how the mayor would leave the meeting. ‘We don’t know whether you will fly out of the stadium or not. We want to know about the N14 development and want to start queuing for jobs,’ he said.
The mayor left under heavy security guard and the police were present to monitor the situation.