Three Rivers residents support redetermination of municipal boundaries
VEREENIGING. – More than 3 000 residents of Three Rivers last week indicated that they are in favour of a redetermination f the municipal boundaries between the Emfuleni Local Municipality and Midvaal Local Municipality.
The redetermination of the municipal boundaries would exclude the communities of Three Rivers Proper and Three Rivers East from the municipal area of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, which they currently form part of, and include them in the Midvaal Local Municipality.
Most of those who submitted written presentations indicated poor service delivery as one of the main reasons why they are keen on having the municipal boundaries redrawn so as to include them in the Midvaal Local Municipality.
According to Dalene Venter, councillor for Ward 1 of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, which includes Three Rivers, Three RiversProper and Three Rivers East, the ward contributes between R40 and R41 million rand to the Emfuleni Local Municipality monthly – more than any other ward in the municipality – but feels that they are not getting the service delivery that they pay for.
Residents flocked to the River Square Shopping Centre in Three Rivers on Saturday 22 April 2023 to manually make their representations after being unable to submit their written representations on the demarcation board’s website due to a technical error.
Most residents who participated in the public participation process only learned on 21 April 2023 – a few days before the closing date – that they could submit written representations to the demarcation board about the issue.
According to Venter this comes after the notice, issued in terms of Section 26 of the Local Government Municipal Demarcation Act, 1998, was not published in a local newspaper, but in one outside the area.
The closing date for submissions was on Wednesday the 26th of April 2023 at 16:30.
Venter said late on Monday (24 April 2023) that more than 3 000 submissions had been received up until that point. Those who could not manually submit their representations at the shopping centre on Saturday submitted their representations by other means.
In a message circulated on social media the African National Congress (ANC) in Sedibeng made a clarion call to all its members, alliance partners and community members to “take a stand against the proposed changes to municipal boundaries with the Midvaal and Johannesburg municipalities” calling it an act that the party sees as “nothing but a sanitized attempt at gerrymandering.”
The ANC said it resolved during a recent lekgotla gathering that it would not support any moves to change the municipal boundaries of Sedibeng and would like the status quo to remain as it is.
“We see this as attempts by some political parties to try and win elections by manipulation of municipal boundaries to take wards they believe they may be popular in, and not through winning the hearts and minds of Sedibeng people,” the statement said. The ANC also called on communities to sign a petition which rejects the proposed municipal boundary change.
