By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
Seven out of ten North West MECs will visit Ganyesa village, near Vryburg on Tuesday to address service delivery challenges. The rapid response team will be led by the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs department (Coghta), Gordon Kegakilwe.
This comes after the community of Austry embarked on service delivery protests early this year, demanding a tarred road between Austry and Moshwana villages. The teaching and learning process was disrupted as irked residents embarked on violent protests and destroyed the Kagisano Molopo Local Municipality offices and vehicles.
One of the residents, Norman Moncho told Taung DailyNews that they were ‘gnashing their teeth’ because of empty promises. Moncho added that they had aired their dissatisfactions many times, but nothing was done.
Meanwhile, ‘The Fire Extinguisher’ as Kegakilwe is affectionately known in the political arena, said the team will be made up of MECs for Education, Maphefo Matsemela, Public Works and Roads, Oageng Molapisi, Health, Madoda Sambatha, Agriculture and Rural Development, Desbo Mohono, Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism, Kenetswe Mosenogi, and Community Safety and Transport Management, Sello Lehari.
“As part of playing oversight on municipalities, we recently met with mayors, municipal managers and administrators in the province to discuss the performance of municipalities.
“We requested municipalities to put systems in place to deal with corruption, use public money for what it is intended for and at the same time, be transparent on how they money is used,” he said.
Kegakilwe further said officials must ensure that they do things by the book. He added that they should be transparent as to how they use public resources.
“Municipal Managers are accounting officers and must, therefore, make sure their municipalities move in the right direction. The department is responsible for the performance of municipalities and if things do not go well at this sphere of government, the blame goes to the department. We are judged on the performance of municipalities’’, Kegakilwe said.
According to Kegakilwe, the performance of municipalities has declined since 2016 and the last Auditor General’s report indicates that no municipality in the province received an unqualified report. He also appealed to councillors to differentiate between party politics and government.
“Mayors must be able to serve all communities irrespective of their political affiliation. We must be effective, rational and be committed to working for our people,” he said.
The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) in the province said it was deeply disturbed by the scenes of violence and no services delivered at the municipality. ANCWL acting provincial secretary, Bitsa Lenkopane said the league was shocked by the unstable situation where some residents have literally seized control of the municipality and denied the majority of the people of Kagisano-Molopo access to municipal offices.
“The seizure of control goes deeper to the municipal purse where business opportunities are skewed. In a letter to the ANC, the community and branches of the party complained about no service delivery, continuous instability at the municipality and much litigation faced by the municipality, while eating out of the same public purse that should be delivering them services.
“The league has also been receiving complaints in this regard, mainly from women who feel they were left as victims and casualties of these activities as they are robbed of basic needs and empowerment to improve their livelihoods, with threats to their physical security,” Lenkopane said.
The Guardian 