The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation to the Northern Cape postponed a meeting scheduled to take place on Wednesday morning with the community of Bothitong, at the Joe Morolong district municipality. The NCOP is on a five day Provincial Week programme in the Northern Cape during which members of the NCOP are conducting oversight on issues of service delivery.
The meeting took place in the afternoon, 10 September at the scheduled time. The meeting was postponed because the community complained that the time of the meeting was not communicated properly to the residents of Bothitong. The leader of the community and Deputy Secretary of the Bothitong Road Forum, Mr Lucky Kaebis, requested that the meeting should take place at the time initially agreed to as it would be wrong to continue with the public participation process without the other members of the community present. “If the meeting were to continue it means only one or two villages are represented here,” Mr Kaebis said.
Mr Kaebis said the issues that the Bothitong residents want to discuss are common across all the villages and include road infrastructure, children not in school, health services, job creation, the services provided by the police and other service delivery issues.
Deputy Chairperson for the NCOP, Mr Raseriti Tau, and Mr Dikgong Stock, the leader for the NCOP delegation, adjourned the meeting following the concerns raised by the community. “It is important that we meet and engage with our people. Our intention and objective is that we engage and interact with our people so that we hear what the problem is. That is part and parcel of doing our oversight work. The only problem that came out of this meeting is that there was confusion about the time and that the other people in the villages are not present in the meeting. There was a request that was put by the community that we reschedule the meeting. We agreed to that and we will come back to engage,” Mr Tau said.
Following the adjournment of the meeting, the NCOP proceeded with its oversight programme visiting a local clinic, a police station and an agricultural project aimed at creating employment opportunities for young people.
During the visit and interaction with the government officials and managers, the NCOP expressed concern about the lack of service delivery and the work conditions of government officials. Officials from the clinic and police station said one of the major obstacles in executing their duties was the shortage of staff and infrastructure in Bothitong.
The local health clinic and police station caters for a community of 56 000 in 46 villages.
Mr Tau said the community must find creative ways to deal with their challenges. “The use of young people as reservists [in the police force] and getting horses to patrol the community instead of cars that end up having mechanical problems would be beneficial. This methodology has proven to be a success in some of the villages in the Eastern Cape,” he said.
The NCOP delegates re-assured the community and government officials that following the oversight, intervention will take place through the Premier of the province and government departments identified.
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