Pretoria - Kungwini Residence Alliance members have called on the City of Tshwane to stop neglecting people from the now defunct Motsweding District Municipality, or give them back their independence.
The municipality had its seat in Bronkhorstspruit before it was disestablished and incorporated into the City of Tshwane in May 2011.
Secretary of the alliance, Vusi Mtshweni, said the people of Bronkhorstspruit and surrounding area formed the organisation because they “were abandoned by the City of Tshwane”.
He said that the City headquarters were 65km away, and its regional offices in Bronkhorstspruit did not have power to make serious decisions to assist residents.
“They are only taking care of townships closer to the CBD. We have submitted memorandums, petitions, letters of concern and letters of complaint, but no one is attending to us.
“We want our municipality back; the one that they took without our consent. We want our Motsweding District Municipality back because things have just been getting worse for us since we were merged into Tshwane.
“We do not even have an FET college … All the young people must take a bus to Pretoria to get that kind of education. You can imagine how tough that must be because the cost of fuel is high and people are not working. We do not even have a region executive director. They are always acting. When you go to them, they tell you that they cannot make decisions, we need to consult the Pretoria office.
“The water that we drink is dirty. We do not drink the municipality’s water, but the municipality expects us to pay for consumption. The electricity is high – R100 of electricity lasts just two days.
“We have indigent people that need to be taken care of by the municipality but there is no one to communicate with because our office is a satellite office.”
Mtshweni said MMC for human settlements Abel Tau was not willing to visit the area even after they engaged had him about their problems, particularly the government’s land release programme for people who could afford to build their own houses.
“We engaged Tau; he promised to include us in his budget but we are surprised that he did not do this. Only Mabopane, Winterveldt and Ga-Rankuwa region, as well as Soshanguve and Atteridgeville, were included.
“Those areas are going to get title deeds and stands to build for themselves since the government said it does not have money to build for everybody. We tried to engage with him after that and since then he has refused to come to engage with us.”
Mtshweni said the City of Tshwane took over and increased rates, and that drove away a lot of investment, and a lot of firms in the area could no longer afford to do business there.
Tau was in a meeting yesterday and unable to comment.
The City’s acting chief of staff, Jordan Griffiths, said: “I can assure you that the Kungwini area is not being neglected by the City of Tshwane. There are a number of infrastructure projects that are earmarked for that area in terms of ensuring that we develop aspects of the infrastructure that facilitate basic service delivery.
“Unfortunately, there are demands that the residents have made which we cannot respond to. We cannot facilitate employment for the people; our role is to provide basic services, which is the provision of water, electricity and waste management, among others.
“I think one of the frustrations is that a lot of people are looking at the City to solve a variety of problems, many of which are not within the scope of duties that the municipality has in the area.”
Pretoria News