Picture: The Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) Speaker, Grace Moipolai/Facebook
By OBAKENG MAJE
Some of the community members across Taung said they were surprised to learn that, the Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) has decided to host a municipal statutory council sitting in Klerkdorp.
The municipality will hold a statutory council sitting, that is opened to the public at Protea Hotel in Klerksdorp on 28 February 2023, which is over 30km, but will not ferry community members.
The meeting will commence at 4pm.
One of the community members, Benjamin Mashuga said, the municipality’s decision to take the statutory council sitting to Klerksdorp is not far-fetched. Mashuga, who did not mince his words alleged that, this is happening because the council wants to take corrupt decisions.
“They know exactly that, as members of the community in Taung, we are against the corruption that continues to prevail at the municipality. The corruption in the municipality is rife and committed by the mayor, other councillors, and administrative staff for their own personal interests.
“This is strategic planning, where community members must be abreast of decisions taken on their behalf. Now, the municipality is denying them that opportunity to form part of that meeting,” he said.
He further said, it is shoddier that, the municipality is even hosting the statutory council sitting in another district. Mashuga added that, this is a clear indication that the municipality is running away from accountability.
“The municipality always paints us as hooligans whenever we want to hold them accountable. We are definitely sure that, there are wrong decisions that are going to be taken during that statutory council sitting,” said Mashuga.
However, the municipal speaker, Grace Moipolai said: “We cannot just take the statutory council sitting to Klerkdorp. The reason we taking it there is that, we also have a strategic planning meeting there. We will attend to the issue of community members, who would like to form part of the meeting the same way we did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We will live-stream the event. What is on the agenda is nothing much, but a quarterly report. This is a matter of compliance and within three months, we should organise statutory council sitting.”
On whether they will either provide transportation or data for those who are interested in attending the municipal statutory council sitting, Moipolai was mum. She said, it is not always where you see community members attending municipal statutory council sitting.
“We are not hiding anything and I’ll send you the agenda after this meeting. Even if we can give you our previous video footage, you will see that our people do not always attend statutory council sittings, unless are those who have their own interests.
“However, we will formally respond to you because I am having a very serious network problem here in Mokassa. One issue that could be critical is the last item on the appointment of the municipal manager. However, we have not yet completed short-listing process,” said Moipolai.
The Guardian 