A high powered delegation comprising the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Sicelo Shiceka, the Public Protector, Advocate Thulisile Madonsela, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Norman Mokoena and the
MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Ms Sibongile Manana has visited the Dipaleseng local municipality.
The purpose of the visit was to consult with all the different stakeholders on what could have contributed to the recent unrests in the area, especially after significant progress had been made on addressing the issues that were raised by the community. The delegation also used the visit to report to the community structures on the progress of the interventions put in place by government to deal with the issues that were raised by the community.
The delegation recognised that even though significant progress has been made in dealing with the issues of the community, there are still some challenges that still affect the Dipaleseng local municipality. It was agreed that there is a need to set up a task team that will look at what are the additional challenges that are faced by the community and continuously monitor the progress made on dealing with all the issues of the community.
The team will comprise of the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs represented by the Deputy Director-General responsible for Mpumalanga, Mr Tozi Faba, the Office of the Public Protector represented by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr
Themba Mthethwa, the Provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs represented by Mr Solly Masilela, the Municipal Manager of Dipaleseng local municipality Mr Patrick Malebye and the community stakeholders.
This team will immediately convene all national and provincial departments affected by the issues raised by the community. Minister Shiceka has given this team two months to report back. The meeting agreed that all issues will be classified into immediate, medium term and long term, with clear time frames.
“We will make sure that we do not fail the people of Dipaleseng. Officials who are not prepared to work for the people must change their attitudes or they must ship out. We will remove all obstacles that will seek to hinder our progress on turning around this municipality.
“This municipality will be turned in a good model for other municipalities to learn from it. I therefore appeal to all the community and the local leaders to very transparent with us as we deal with their issues. There must be no shifting of goal posts,” said Shiceka
Minister Shiceka also stressed that government will be paying special attention to all those involved in corruption as this was the main cause hampering service delivery. He also added that there will be special attention being paid to Dipaleseng in this regard.
Government has condemned the acts of violence, intimidation, and destruction of property, criminality and the attack on foreign nationals that have accompanied the unrests in Balfour, urging the police to act against the perpetrators. Government further strongly condemned the disruption of schooling by the protestors and appealed that there must be no further disruption of classes and students must be allowed to continue schooling.
The Public Protector explained the role of her office to stakeholders and urged them to make use of it. “We have come here today to hear firsthand what the issues are, and ensure that government delivers on its promise,” said Madonsela.
Some of the issues raised in the memorandum submitted by the community, dated 8 July 2009 were around education, social and economic infrastructure, service delivery, housing, youth, crime, policies governing recruitment, public and private sector contributing to youth development and health.
Some of the achievements that have been made on these issues include the Department of Home Affairs extending its services from two days a week to five days at the Thusong Service Centre, the provincial government has appointed a contractor who has completed 300 of the 340 incomplete houses and a further allocation of 100 housing units has been given to the municipality with a possibility to increase the allocation in the next financial year to assist it deal with the housing shortages.
A Skills Development summit was held where an interim Youth Council was appointed and a youth development strategy was developed, a youth centre will be included in the 2010/11 integrated development plan process, government is exploring the feasibility of establishing Further Education and Training (FET) college and the provincial government has taken a decision to build a University in the province.
A recruitment policy is in place and it is more biased towards local residents, there is a 24 hour clinic that is under construction in Greylingstand and the MEC’s of Health in Mpumalanga and Gauteng have signed an agreement that allows the Siyathemba community to make use of the public hospital in Heidelberg Gauteng.
Burnstone Gold Mine has employed 90 people from the Siyathemba Township and others from the neighbouring towns. The mine is also currently offering maths and science classes for grade 10 to 12 respectively as part of ensuring that the schooling system is able to respond to the labour market.
Minister Shiceka and MEC Mokoena will continuously visit the area to interact with the community and give them feedback on the progress being made on dealing with the issues that they have raised.
Contact Person:
Simphiwe Kunene
Cell: 082 413 3931
Issued by: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
18 February 2010
Source: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mpumalanga Provincial Government (http://cgta.mpg.gov.za/)
