Thirty days respite for Ramaphosa... Calm returns

The indefinite and complete shutdown at Vuwani, which brought all services and schooling in the area to a halt for two weeks, came to an abrupt end at the weekend.

This follows the visit by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana on Sunday.

The area was a no-go area for almost two months, with communities protesting about their proposed incorporation into the new municipality of Malamulele. The protests were marred by violence, lootings, burnings and barricading of roads in the area. In the process, many residents were arrested for public-violence-related offences, while school children suffered in terms of lost time.

During the visit, Ramaphosa was told by the residents of their unwillingness to form part of Malamulele, which they said smacked of an agenda by the government to please the Malamulele people to win their votes in the forthcoming elections. They requested him to intervene on their behalf.

They  had demanded previously that they wanted the president to intervene in the matter, but the visit simply did the trick as the shut-down was suspended immediately after Ramaphosa and Mphephu Ramabulana had addressed them.

The leader of the Pro Makhado Task Team, Mr Arnold Mulaudzi, said they were putting their fate in the hands of the presidency, "where we hope a positive intervention will come out. We have spoken to the deputy president, who is our 'homeboy', and after listening to what he said, we decided there and then to give him a chance to look into this matter."

Mulaudzi said that they were prepared to give Ramaphosa 30 days, and "we will come back here and if the response does not suit our taste, we will go back to the streets and everything will stop." He added that they encouraged the people to let the area run smoothly and all the pupils to return to school.

Ramaphosa told the residents he did not have an immediate solution to their problems, but would investigate as to how the municipal demarcation board had come to their conclusion of including them in the new municipality that would include Malamulele. “We have heard your problems and we are not just going to sit down. We will come back and report to you. Please let life return to normal while we look into your problems. Let the children go back to school and services run smoothly,” he said.

King Mphephu Ramabulana said that his was worried about school children losing school time and also the total lawlessness that existed in the area.

Representing the affected traditional leaders, Chief Livhuwani Matsila said they were happy that the presidency had listened to them. He urged the community to give the presidency a chance to look into their problems while they would be looking at the legal route option at the same time.

Date:21 September 2015

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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