Seven leaders of the South African Communist Party (SACP) Lower South Coast District were recently arrested on charges of public violence.
On December 5, the party challenged Ugu District Municipality to address several issues and presented it with a memorandum of concerns.
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When no response was received, the leaders picketed outside the municipal offices in Port Shepstone.
They were arrested and were released on a warning after appearing in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court.
They are due to appear again on January 28.
The memorandum handed to Ugu by the SACP highlighted the following concerns:
* The municipal billing system needs to be rectified and the municipality needs to issue accurate bills
* In-sourcing of all essential services
* Answers on service delivery failure
* A forensic investigation into the misuse of municipal funds
* An investigation into contractors and emergency contractors charging exorbitant sums for work undertaken for the municipality
* Service delivery in rural areas, including RDP houses, community halls, clinics, road construction and electricity
* Local economic development where only a few local companies benefited from Ugu’s procurement system.
“No amount of intimidation can stop us from demanding answers regarding the memorandum that was submitted. We are going to exercise our democratic rights as enshrined by the South African constitution and we will be marching and picketing day and night if called to,” said party secretary, Sfiso Ndlovu.
“We will continue to expose any corruption and call upon the community of Ugu District to stand up and be part of the activities led by the Communist Party as we believe that the issues we are dealing with touches all members of the community.
“Our members were arrested for public violence. We held a peaceful picket and there was no violence. We now await a meeting with our provincial department this Saturday to discuss the way forward,” he said.
Ugu District Municipality spokesman, France Zama said that the protest was unannounced and no arrangements had been made for the mayor to meet with the protesters.
“However, the issues that were documented in the memorandum are being attended to by the leadership of the municipality and once all the issues have been thoroughly dealt with, the municipality will respond to the SACP accordingly. We do apologise for the delay in this regard, however, the nature of the matters raised require adequate time to be considered.”
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