RESIDENTS of Mafishane can now celebrate, with the Greater Tubatse Municipality having completed the long-awaited access bridge that connects them to Burgersfort.
The old bridge was washed away during heavy rainfall two years ago and left Mafishane, Sekutlong and Madifahlane residents stranded.
Municipal spokesperson, Patricia Kgoete said they had also completed an access bridge in Kampeng (Driekop) that would enable motorists and the community to travel at any time. Water would no longer flow over the bridge, she said.
“We have also completed two other projects. These include the fencing of the rural cemetery with a 1,8m diamond mesh fence, double gates and two ventilated pittoilets in the Madifahlane area.
“Our mandate is to deliver quality and sustainable projects to our communities. We have taken important resolutions that must be implemented to speed up service delivery and to address identified gaps.”
Greater Tubatse mayor, Nkosi Mahlake, said people would now be able to receive services that could not previously reach them, now that the bridge was completed.
He said the municipality’s main challenge was the grading of access roads. “Our roads have been washed away by the rain and the graders at our disposal cannot grade all the roads at once. We have entered into a relationship with the roads department to assist us with this,” he said
“The provision of electricity is still a major challenge faced by the municipality. As a short-term solution the municipality is providing solar energy, which is going to benefit 2 000 households. This is a temporary solution until the issue of capacity is addressed in the affected villages. In addition we are going to electrify nine villages and this will significantly reduce the backlog.”
