President Jacob Zuma will on 22 May 2010 conduct a report back visit to Siyathemba Township in Balfour, Mpumalanga province.
The President undertook a surprise visit to the area during the sporadic service delivery protests that took place in few municipalities in some provinces last year.
President Zuma established an inter-Ministerial task team to look into the problems raised in Balfour. The team, led by the Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane, comprises the following:
* Minister of Police
* Minister Social Development
* Minister of Public Works
* Minister Basic Education
* Minister of Higher Education
* Minister of Human Settlements
* Minister of Labour
* Minister of Mineral Resources
* Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
* Minister of Health
* Mineral resources
The Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Department has been coordinating national, provincial and local efforts to address problems in the municipality. Balfour is undertaken as a pilot to ensure that government can deliver integrated services to the people and address all challenges they are facing in a coordinated manner.
The district municipality, provincial government and national departments have been working with Dipaleseng Local Municipality to address the challenges in the municipality.
The people raised the following issues with the President during the visit last year:
- Balfour used to fall under Gauteng province before the new demarcation of municipal boundaries which took it to Mpumalanga. The nearest service centres such as schools, health facilities are in Springs and Heidelberg with a distance of about 30 kilometrs. When the area was moved and demarcated to Mpumalanga, the nearest centre of services such as health facilities, schools became Standerton, which is about 75 kilometrs away.
- The area has a clinic that operates with assistant nurses only. There are no doctors and most patients with minor medical illnesses are often referred to Standerton and Heidelberg in Gauteng for serious illnesses.
- The area has no police station; people use a satellite station, which would sometimes be closed with no proper explanation to the community.
- Home affairs was the only service centre in the township, although it only operates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The office is understaffed and therefore unable to deliver services quicker to the people.
- There are few mining activities in the area. However, the big concern from the community, particularly the youth, is that they are not given opportunities within the sector. The training that is often offered for high skilled jobs is given to people who come from outside the area, thereby depriving people from the area an opportunity for employment.
- There is a housing backlog and insufficient land for development.
- The area lacks proper sport and other recreational facilities.
The visit is aimed at reporting back on the work done by the Ministerial team.
Details of the report back meeting are as follows:
Date: 22 May 2010
Time: 09h00
Venue: Siyathemba Stadium (Balfour)
Media representatives wishing to attend should please send their name, name of media institution and ID or passport number to:
Jonas Mashigo
E-mail: jonas@po.gov.za
Cell: 082 679 9464
Enquiries:
Vincent Magwenya
Cell: 072 715 0024
Source: The Presidency
