RESIDENTS of Gon’on’o village in Giyani have warned the Greater Giyani Municipality that there could be serious repercussions should the municipality fail to meet their demands related to service delivery.
People marched to the municipality recently demanding clarity on a number of problems in their village. These included false promises, which they alleged were made by the municipality.
According to the memorandum, which was read aloud by community representative, Robert Maluleke, the municipality lied during the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) midterm report delivered in Ndhengeza village on March 17. “In your IDP midterm report recently you indicated that you had electrified six villages, however, when we did our research we found that you had only electrified two villages. Now the question is, where’s our R12 million that you claimed to have spent on the project,” Maluleke asked.
Maluleke went on to say that residents were even more angry over the fact that their village was not included in the 2014/2015 IDP, which meant they would have to wait at least another two years before they received service delivery.
“You have done nothing for us in the 2013/2014 financial year. As if that was not enough, this year again there’s nothing planned for our village in your IDP,” he said, adding that the municipality was only focusing on giving them toilets instead of bringing them projects that were crucial to the lives of the people.
Residents also accused the mayor of nepotism, alleging there were some expanded public works programme (EPWP) workers who were employed directly by the mayor instead of going through the normal employing procedure.
“Six of the road cleaners or EPWP workers who were employed this year claimed to have been directly hired by the mayor. On how or why you did not bother to follow the employing procedure is still a question,” Maluleke read from the memorandum.
Maluleke said the community wanted answers within seven working days. “This (march) was just a warning shot where one shoots in the air to scare away an intruder, but failure to heed our demands will lead to us firing straight at the target,” he warned.
Greater Giyani mayor, Pat Hlungwani said he would come back with answers within the stipulated period. “I won’t speak much except to say that we will come back to you within the seven-day period you have stipulated,” he said.
By the time of going to print, no response by Hlungwani had been received.
