MK Party hands service delivery complaints to authorities

The uMkhonto Wesizwe Party (MKP), Progressive Civics Congress (PCC) and African Transformation Movement (ATM) showed their service delivery frustrations at a joint march recently, as they handed over memorandums of grievances to local authorities.

The three organisations marched in Marburg before proceeding to Ugu District Municipality in the Port Shepstone CBD. They then marched to Ray Nkonyeni Local Municipality (RNM), where they met Independent Electoral Commission officials and municipal leadership, who accepted their array of complaints including the failures of both the private and the public sector on issues of the National Minimum Wage Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act and service delivery mandates.

RNM sub-regional MKP organiser, Ayanda Nzama, delivered their list of grievances to Eskom, Ugu District Municipality, IEC and RNM and gave them 21 days to respond.

Nzama said MKP demands that Eskom complies with the Electricity Regulation Act – Section 27 (1) (b) which stipulates that everyone has a right to access electricity.

“The people of RNM have experienced transformer breakdowns and denial of services. Entire communities across wards have experienced frequent transformer breakdowns and failures, leaving them without electricity for weeks, months, and for years in some areas,” said Nzama.

At Ugu, Nzama handed their grievances to the general manager of water services, Dr Thuli Mwelase. “The water crisis remains unresolved and has reached catastrophic proportions in several wards of local municipalities in the district. The crisis has worsened with communities continuing to live under conditions that violate their constitutional right to sufficient, clean and safe water,” said Nzama.

Dr Mwelase received their grievances and said the municipality will respond within 21 days.

The protesters ended their march at RNM’s office, where IEC officials also received a memorandum. Nzama alleged voter machines malfunctioned and networks failed. “Voter management devices broke down and and there was electoral fraud in RNM and KZN,” said Nzama.

According to Nzama, RNM also failed to deliver RDP houses to the people in many wards. “People complain about high crime rates in the area. There is corruption and ghost projects where millions of rands have been lost since 2016, after the merger of Ezinqoleni Municipality and Hibiscus Coast Municipality.”

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