Lesedi Local Municipality, recently experienced service delivery protests with residents setting fire to the homes of at least eight councilors and all municipal owned buildings in Ratanda. Violence erupted when defiant residents, armed with rocks, glass bottles and petrol bombs, burned down a municipal building adjacent to a police station on the 19th March 2012. The reason advanced for the protests, was with regard to power cuts, electricity rates that are too high and billing.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) has been central in engagements with stakeholders in an effort to find solutions to the problems that have sparked the protests.
The Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) will interact with Lesedi municipality as part of its rotational engagement meeting with municipalities to be held in Heidelberg on 8 June2012. In attendance, we anticipate the presence of the Executive Mayor, Speaker,Chief Whip, Members of the Mayoral Committee and councillors.
This interaction is as a result of a SALGA National Executive Committee (NEC) decision which directed that the entire leadership must intensify regular interaction between the organisation and its member municipalities. To this end, a system of rotating meetings amongst provinces for NEC meetings has been adopted and has already been rolled out in all other provinces. Equally the NEC has encouraged SALGA PECs to rotate these engagements in all Districts in their respective provinces to maximise the interface of SALGA with its members.
This engagement with Lesedi leadership will be followed by the bi-monthly SALGA PEC meeting on the same day. Some of the topical issues to be deliberated upon include amongst others:
- Deliberations on the e-Tolling and its impact on Municipal roads;
- Salary and Wage negotiations for 2012/13;
- Engagements on AARTO;
- Climate Change Response
Outcomes media briefing
You are invited to attend the outcomes media briefing, whereby the outcomes of the engagement with Lesedi leadership will be shared and questions taken by the selected panel consisting of SALGA Provincial Office Bearers; the Executive Mayor of Lesedi Local Municipality and the Provincial Executive Officer of SALGA Gauteng.
Date: 8 June 2012
Time: 10h30
Venue: Heidelberg (exact venue TBC)
“Local Government is everybody’s business”
Enquiries:
Malebo Tau
Tel: 011 276 1150
E-mail: mtau@salga.org.za
