THE newly appointed MEC of local government and human settlements, Fenny Gaolaolwe said the merger between Tlokwe and Ventersdorp municipalities will go ahead as scheduled.

Gaolaolwe said that processes are on course to realise the merger by August 3 when people go to vote in this year’s local government elections.

“The department is on the ground to ensure the seamless merger of Tlokwe and Ventersdorp local municipalities. Fully functional transactional change management committee at administrative and political level was established in September 2015.

“We are proud to announce that the work done by the committee has been applauded by the national municipal demarcation transactional committee. The province is ready to deliver a new institution within Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipality on August 3,” Gaolaolwe said.

However, many opposition parties did not agree with the merger. They said the move was propelled by ANC because they want to win Tlokwe local municipality.

DA Tlokwe constituency head, Juanita Terblanche said: “We will inform the voters of both Ventersdorp and Tlokwe local municipality about what is happening. And people at the legislature and national demarcation board are taking decisions without consulting them.”

Terblanche also highlighted that the merger will mean Tlokwe local municipality will carry Ventersdorp’s burden. She said they were concerned that the failure to pay an outstanding debt of R49 million to Eskom could result in termination of the power supply to Ventersdorp and four neighbouring areas.

“The Ventersdorp local municipality is expected to pay R49 478 502.26 to avoid power cut in Ventersdorp, Tshing township and other three villages like Boikhutsong, Boikhutso and Appeldraai. The Acting Municipal Manager Isaac Moruti admitted this crisis stemmed from an accumulated debt going back to 2012,” she said.

Terblanche added: “Tlokwe community cannot be held responsible for bailing out a town that is down on its knees due to consistent mismanagement and poor revenue collection facilities. Due to a strong DA opposition in the Tlokwe council, we can reflect a positive bank balance and keep the current governing party accountable.”

Ventersdorp’s anti-demarcation board committee spokesperson, Khuduga Dibe said the residents lost hope on ANC. He said they will contest national local government elections as independent candidates.

“We have taken a decision that we will contest the upcoming local government elections as independent candidates. We will make sure that we reverse the merger decision after winning the municipality. The decision to merger two local municipalities was taken on our behalf without any consultations,” he said.

The new municipality is expected to be named after the struggle icon, JB Marks after local government elections.

-TDN

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