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Senior officials fail to pitch at community feedback meeting

 

Residents and local community leaders were left quite despondent after a ward meeting that was held in Louis Trichardt on Tuesday evening.

This meeting of Ward 20, a DA (Democratic Alliance) controlled ward, was supposed to serve as a feedback session to the community regarding some of Louis Trichardt’s most dire concerns like crime, health and water issues.  

People in attendance were outraged when they learned that the only municipal officials that bothered to show up were junior officials from the Makhado Municipality. According to the DA councillor for Ward 20, Mr Brian du Plooy, officials from the Vhembe District Municipality laughed off their invitations to the meeting.

Consequently, the feedback session of the meeting could not proceed. This, however, did not stop residents to voice their frustration and anger towards both municipalities. Resident after resident vented about the pathetic attempts of the municipalities to turn bad service delivery around.

Attendees to the meeting became very irritated when it was suggested by Du Plooy that the community of Louis Trichardt will have to take it upon themselves to turn the town’s situation around. “We need to look after ourselves otherwise nothing will get done,” remarked Du Plooy at one stage during the meeting.

Is there really a decrease in crime?

Self-reliance was also the message emphasised when crime in and around Louis Trichardt came under discussion.

Addressing the meeting was Mr Christo Snyman on behalf of the local farm watch groups. He said that the only reason there are less syndicates operating in Louis Trichardt, is because there are people willing to work together to fight crime.

From the comments Snyman received it was, however, clear that the Louis Trichardt community are losing their trust in the local police. Several complaints were brought up where residents said that they were fed-up by the police’s excuses of not having enough manpower to attend to crime scenes.

Several explanations to this were offered by Snyman, of which one was that the local station was in fact losing personnel and vehicles due to there being less crime. Snyman offered the example of Bandelierkop’s local station that was downscaled into a satellite station. According to Snyman, crime did not get reported to the station, which resulted in “lower” crime stats. Due to “less” crime in the area the police relocated their resources to other stations with higher crime rates. “People need to report crime, follow-up on it and really need to get involved,” warned Snyman. “Otherwise what happened at Bandelierkop is going to happen at the Makhado police station,” he added.

Eltivillas, the stepchild of Makhado Municipality?

For the residents of Eltivillas it is not only crime that is increasingly becoming a daily struggle.

Residents from this community were extremely irate with the Makhado Municipality. “All over Eltivillas’ streets there are potholes. Some of these potholes are so big that people are driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid them … this is an accident waiting to happen,” remarked one resident from Eltivillas.

Another issue that was raised was that the Makhado Municipality is currently incapable of cutting the grass next to roads or on empty stands, which in turn has a direct impact on crime. “How pathetic must a municipality be if they can’t afford R18 000 to get the service parts that they need to get their slasher machines working again,” declared Eltivillas residents. Residents raised this issue because they have been struggling for the past three months to get the municipality to cut bushes and long grass.

Water still the issue of the day

Water – or the lack thereof - was once again residents’ primary compliant, with residents wanting to know what is going on.

Feedback given by Du Plooy in this regard pointed towards a communication issue within VDM. Apart from VDM officials who simply refuse to give the DA feedback on official questions that have been directed to them, there is also seemingly little internal communication going around within VDM itself. Du Plooy said that none of the different departments within VDM seem to be talking with each other.

A recent go-slow strike of municipal workers, which lead to new water shortages, had been resolved. Municipal workers had sabotaged the power to the Albasini pumping station. It came to light that although these workers were stationed at the Makhado Municipal Station they were employed by VDM and they did not receive their overtime pay. The issue has been resolved, according to Du Plooy, when the VDM on 1 March officially took over the complete management of these employees.

After the meeting, the officials from the Makhado Municipality who were at the meeting undertook to report back to their heads of office and the municipal manager himself. There were, however, several residents that called for more drastic action to force the municipalities to heed residents’ plights. Many felt that the time for talking has long past and suggested that the idea of the withholding of rates and taxes be revisited.

 

Date:24 March 2018

By: Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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