No ‘take over’ for Harding

HARDING’S municipal manager dismissed any talk about protesters demanding that cooperative governance should interfere and take the municipality under administration.

“A ‘take over’ of Umuziwabantu Municipality by cooperative governance was not going to happen anytime soon,” said municipal manager Sazi Mbhele, who also told media representatives that ‘cooperative governance only takes over council when it can’t afford to meet, afford to adopt a budget or make a decision’.

“Only when there is chaos and government says it has collapsed… that’s when government takes over,” he added.

He pointed out that in the demands submitted by protesters, they didn’t ask for the municipality to be taken over.

Mr Mbhele sat alongside the mayor, Councillor Dixie Nciki, when they addressed the media on Tuesday this week regarding the protests and concerns raised the the community.

Recently protests escalated in Harding, with dustbins being tipped over and tyres being set alight and used to block roads, forcing shops to close their doors as hundreds of people carrying sticks and placards marched through the town. The community believes the municipal management has totally collapsed.

Cllr Nciki said they ‘appreciated the dissatisfaction by some within the community about the pace of service delivery and understand their frustrations’.

“Sometimes other issues become challenges due to lack of communication,” she added.

She carried on to say that they were concerned that the violent protests have the potential of destroying the very same achievements and services that have already been delivered.

“The reality is that backlogs resulting from the past system of colonialism and apartheid which existed for more than 300 years cannot be addressed within a such a short space of time,” she said.

Cllr Nciki said the protests came just after they had concluded their IDP roadshows, and that some of the issues raised in the memorandums are already in the budget for the upcoming financial year. “In all these areas we had representation of key stakeholders on our communities. These people told us that they are pleased with the service delivery,”she said.

Cllr Nciki said they planned to meet with each ward, remind them of what was said at the IDP roadshows and give them the opportunity to raise any further issues.

She explained that they are currently tarring Shepstone Street and Turner Street. She highlighted a number of projects they had completed since 2011 and added that they were busy with other projects.

Cllr Nciki said that they were aware that the taxi rank needed a bigger space and rehabilitation and it remains a challenge. “Let the growth of our town not be the cause of the protests,” she added.

She said that since they have committed their funds to other projects, they will include the taxi rank in their 2016/2017 financial year.

Cllr Nciki said the new mall had created a number of job opportunities for locals and such developments demand increased levels of service delivery.

‘There is no way issues of service delivery can stall. The only understanding we ask is that the speed at which service delivery moves might be slower that people expect,” she said.

Cllr Nciki and Mr Mbhele both declined to comment on the question of any ‘political factor’ being an underlying cause of the protests.