Vosman community not happy with new Community Liaison Officer (CLO)

What was supposed to be a sod-turning event at Vosman took another turn according to the residents as they claimed that they were not even notified about the ceremony.

A sod-turning ceremony on Tuesday, September 29 was held at Vosman Community Hall without notifying the community and one of the ward councillors.

Community members reported that when they got wind of the ceremony, they decided to attend.

“We were so surprised to hear that there is a Community Liaison Officer (CLO) that was interviewed and appointed without involving the community as it is the norm and the project should begin on Thursday, October 1. As community members we raised our concern about the appointment of the CLO; that was when we were threatened”.

They say they are against the appointment of Mr Given Nkosi (ANC youth leader) as the CLO.

“We also had a problem with the street light project; we acknowledge that it is a good project to develop our community, but we were not properly informed as a community. People who were employed in the project are not from our wards. As a community, we have decided to stand up and to fight for our unemployed community members as well as to fight corruption. As a community, we plead for intervention and protection of our community.”

A community meeting was held on October 1 at Vosman Hall.

It was announced to the whole community, but we already received a threat face to face from the leaders of the Community Structures as they took out their guns.

“We can’t name them because they were many and we don’t know all of them. We’re not picking a war, we are not against anyone, but we just want to better our community. We have been beaten by the officials in the structure and leadership. We have had some community members who were assaulted and cases have been opened at Vosman Police Station,” read the statement from some community members.

Several attempts to contact Cllr Nkosi failed.