Local municipalities and horrid service delivery go hand-in-hand. In every municipality in Limpopo there exists corruption, theft, and a complete lack of competency in various departments.
In Lulekani township outside Phalaborwa, the residents have had enough and have called for the heads of their respective councilors in order to put and end to the lack of running water and decent roads in their community.
On Tuesday this week, the 8th of February, the residents banded together and blocked all roads within the township in protest to the ongoing service deliver issues. They were accusing long-serving councilor, Thomas Nkuna and his colleague, Richard Makasela, of not looking after the interests of their own community and have blamed them for the lack of water and tarred roads.
Nkuna, who during the local elections was at the center of controversy after he withdrew his candidacy and requested that Mkhabele Lisbeth be appointed in his place, is now accused of neglecting the issues of service delivery in Lulekani.
“Both Nkuna and Makasela use their cars to go and fetch water for their own households in Namakgale (the township neighbouring Lulekani) whilst we are struggling over here,” said a disgruntled resident.
The residents are also complaining about the tarred road from Shipamela Primary School to the Lulekani Post Office, the tarred road from Mondzweni to Benfarm, and the lack of electricity in Extension Block D as well as the shortage of water in the area.
In 2021 social media was buzzing with the news of a municipal water project rumoured to have cost R9 million which turned out to be Jojo tanks.
This did not come as a surprise to many as the ANC has been known for its blunders of awarding exorbitant tenders to projects that don’t fit the price tag. It was later established that the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality did spend an amount of R2 449 631 (vat inclusive) on the JoJo project.
Odas Ngobeni, the spokesperson of the Mopani District Municipality, acknowledged to Bulletin that they have over the past months been working with the community of Lulekani to implement a short-term water project.
“As [an] intervention to the challenge of inadequate water supply to some residents of Lulekani, which is largely caused by the many unauthorized connections on the rising main to the command reservoir.”
Now the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality Mayor, Merriam Malatji, accompanied by the Speaker, Oliver Mabunda, MMC for Water and Sanitation in the Mopani District, Sefufi, and Ward 16 councilor, Thompson Nkuna, met with the residents of Lulekani Matiko Xikaya in Ward 16 in a quest to resolve service delivery challenges in the area on Tuesday, 8th of February.
Merriam Malatji said that the roads the residents are complaining about belong to the Provincial Government (Public Works) while Mopani District Municipality are responsible for the provision of water in Lulekani.
“However, the municipality will continue to engage the public works department and Mopani District to intervene. As the municipality, we have been writing correspondence to the Provincial Department since from 2020 requesting them to intervene but with no response,” the mayor said.
The disgruntled residents have since requested that the public works department and Mopani District Municipality resolve the matter within three weeks or face the consequences.
***Editor’s Comment: Is it not a slap in the face of every member of the public that politicians, especially those at local government level, refuse to acknowledge the failures within their own ranks and continuously downplay serious problems faced by their residents as mere “challenges”? Meriam Malatji and her executive committee have done nothing for the Phalaborwa community in the last three years since she took office when Pule Shayi was redeployed as mayor for the Mopani District Municipality. She promised that service delivery would continue as it did before, when she was somehow re-elected in November last year. By all accounts she has kept to her word. It can then be understood why residents burn tyres and block roads when they have no water or electricity whilst their “leaders” live a life devoid of these “challenges”.
