Residents raise their concerns

LIMPOPO – PEOPLE living in the Vhembe district were given a chance to air their views to the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) about the redetermination of municipal boundaries in the area last Tuesday.

This was in compliance with a call made by cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister, Pravin Gordhan about the redetermination of the boundaries of certain municipalities.

A large number of people, including those representing various community structures, gathered at the Thohoyandou Indoor Sports Centre to air their views to the representatives of the MDB, chaired by Jane Thupana.

Thupana told the gathering that the purpose of the public participation meetings they were rolling out throughout the country was to hear everyone’s views on the redetermination of municipal boundaries.

Earlier this year, there was a proposal to close Mutale Municipality with a view towards solving the challenges of financial viability and lack of proper services delivery.

Speaking on behalf of the DA in Mutale, councillor Joseph Mariba, said the Mutale Municipality had returned an estimated R31 million that was underspent during the last financial year to the national treasury.

He further alleged that the municipality had failed to compile its financial reports for auditing, and had paid more than R890 000 to independent consultants to compile the report, which was not budgeted for.

Other complaints included not having had a corporte director for the past 11 months and not having achieved its objectives regarding the provision of services to the community it served. He requested urgent intervention by the department of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs in the province.

Representatives from the Rammbuda and Thengwe tribal authorities also presented their views to the board. Speaking on behalf of the Rammbuda tribal authority, Sampson Madumi, said the authority supported the proposal to split the Mutale Municipality and integrate part into the Thulamela Municipality and the other part into the Musina Municipality.

“We recommended that, wards 1,2, 3, 4, 7 and 13 be incorporated with Thulamela, while villages such as Muswodi, Folovhodwe and Tshiungani must be serviced by Musina as they are situated near Musina. We hope it will be good for delivering services to the communities,” Madumi said.

Chief Tshitereke Nemaheni, representing the Thengwe tribal authority, argued that the entire Thengwe area should go to one municipality and not be split. “We are going to Musina. The Thulamela Municipality is always accused of not delivering better services to its people, so why are we supposed to be incorporated with them?” he questioned.

Some community strutures like the Vuwani and Malamulele demarcation task teams argued for the establishment of a fourth municipality, which according to them, would contribute immensely to the economic growth of Vhembe region.