Mayor launches forum with traditional leaders
GREATER Giyani mayor, Pat Hlungwani, last Tuesday launched a forum called Mayor-Traditional Leaders Forum, to boost the relationship between the municipality and the traditional leaders around Giyani.
GIYANI – GREATER Giyani mayor, Pat Hlungwani, last Tuesday launched a forum called Mayor-Traditional Leaders Forum, to boost the relationship between the municipality and the traditional leaders around Giyani.
The forum aims to free land for development around the municipality. The land was not available for development for over 20 years, resulting in the slow growth of the municipality.
While launching the forum, the mayor said the role of traditional leaders was to assist the municipality to identify people’s needs and therefore it was important that they were kept abreast with what was happening in the municipality.
“It is our hope that this forum will afford everybody here an opportunity to not only be privy to what the municipality is doing, but also to participate in its development in the manner that would see our municipality grow bigger,” he said.
He appealed to traditional leaders to ensure that land was used properly to ensure it benefited the community. He said in some areas, land was allocated without the knowledge of the municipality, which was a problem when the municipality had to bring services to them.
“Some of these areas are flood zones and are problematic during heavy rains. This is why it is necessary that before allocating the land to the community the municipality is notified so that it can send in a team of engineers to survey the area and see if it is suitable for dwelling,” he said.
Hosi Dzumeri (Divila Mabunda) said the best way to build a relationship between the municipality and the traditional leaders was to first check what led to the relationship being soured in the first place. “We need to first find the main cause of the problem that led to division between the municipality and traditional leaders, and address, otherwise we won’t be able to resolve the matter,” he said.
Meanwhile, other traditional leaders blamed ward councillors for not creating a good working relationship between themselves and traditional leaders. “Some of them we don’t even know exist until their terms end. We need councillors who are able to work closely with us, and update us on what is happening in the municipality,” Hosi Xikhumbha (Wilson Rikhotso) said.
