By Obakeng maje
Taung- The executive mayor of Greater Taung municipality rre Kaone Lobel led an imbizo which took place within Greater Taung Local Municipality in North West.
 
The imbizo took place under the auspices of the Greater Taung municipality Imbizo Focus Month with a theme “Draft Reviewd IDP before National elections” in Lokgabeng village.
 
The thematic position of the event forms part of a drive to inform the communities about the budget allocated to the municipality before new financial year and towards the democratization elections of the country.

“The municipality has since provided the epoch in the struggle with a conviction of building a democratic, non-racist, non-sexist South Africa that belongs to all who live in it” mayor Kaone lobelo said.

That is also entails continuous dialogue between government and the people.

The Imbizo is essentially anchored on the continuous need for heightened on-going engagement between municipality and citizens.

The engagement during the imbizo geared towards establishing partnership and understanding which will be characterised by thorough discussion, dialogue, joint problem solving and, above all, feedback to communities.

The mayor explains to the masses how the budget works. He said Taung is only allocated R27 million as it is consists of rural area where service delivery is not paid for.

“As a municipality, we only get service paid from Taung CBD, Pudumoe and Reivilo. So it is very hard for us to cover everything at once. Most of our villages does not pay for basic service like water and sanitation” Lobelo said.

The communities demanded to know about the promises the municipality promised like Mankoroane Garden houses.

However Neo Mokoma from Human Settlements explains that the backlog was caused by SIU investigations in the matter, but he promised to come back before June with a feedback.

“We understand the backlog that has been caused, but the matter was investigated by Special Unit Investigations(SIU) and we still waiting for the outcomes” Mokoma said.

Mokoma said all houses that were supposed to be built will be included in 2014-2015 financial year.

He said that his department decided not to start any new projects but finish all backlogs first. Makoma said they know only one house was built from R8 million project by contractor who was appointed to build houses, but he left without finishing the project.

Most communities said they want roads, sanitations, water and electricity in their areas and said they need a good communication with their councillors who were accused of being dictators.

The municipality encouraged the members of the community to register for elections as the number of voters determine the budget that the municipality will be given.

“Please great people you need to understand that the provincial government look into how many people are registered to vote in that particular area and will provide budget accordingly, so stop that tendency of just sitting around without registering to vote.”

“If you do not register know that you do not appear as a resident of Taung as that will cripple our budget. We need to know how many people reside in Taung and the budget will be given according to its people” Lobelo outlines.

Mayor said the are projects that are still underway and will be executed after financial year.-TDN
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