Mpumalanga MECs to Assess situation in Balfour in Dipaleseng Municipality
10 February 2010
A delegation of MEC’s has visited the Dipaleseng Local Municipality.
The delegation was led by The MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional
Affairs, Mr Norman Mokoena and it included the MEC for Safety, Security and Liaison, Ms Sibongile Manana, the MEC for Economic Development,
Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Mr Jabu Mahlangu and the MEC for Culture,
Sports and Recreation, Mr Vusi Shongwe. The aim of the visit by the MEC was to
assess the situation after the recent unrest in the area.
After the visit the MEC’s have condemned the
unwarranted violence, malicious destruction of property and attack on foreign
nationals. He further strongly condemned the disruption of schooling by the
protestors and appealed for calm in the area. “No matter what the grievances
are, the attack of foreign nationals and the disruption of schools will not be
tolerated. President Jacob Zuma has made a call that there should be effective
teaching and learning in all schools and therefore anyone found to be disrupting
schools will be arrested. All students must return to school and we call upon
the law enforcement agents to apprehend those criminal elements that seek to
bring disorder to the community” said MEC Mokoena.
MEC Mokoena also called upon the community not be misled that nothing
was being done to address the issues that they had raised and that this is what
the unrests are about and yet people are positioning themselves for the
2011local government elections. A task team was set up to deal with these
issues. This task team includes representatives from the National and Provincial
Government, the municipality and some of the community leaders. Significant
progress has been made in dealing with a number of the issues raised by the
community. “As we make progress on issues raised some elements are shifting goal
post and that will not be allowed.” said Mokoena.
Some of the issues raised in the memorandum submitted by the community,
dated 08 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 2010/2011 Integrated Development Plan Process,
government is exploring the feasibility of establishing an 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 Greylingstad
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 10-12 respectively as part of ensuring that
the schooling system is able to respond to the labour market.
“It’s unfortunate that the community library has been destroyed when the department of Culture Sports and Recreation had made an amount R200 000 available to equip it with computer and internet facilities, and yet significant progress has been made in addressing the issues they raised with government. Can you say these actions are in the best interest of the school children and the community? We urge community leaders to exercise restraint and ensure that the situation is normalised and property is protected” said Mokoena.
Contact Person
Simphiwe Kunene
Cell: 082 413 3931
Issued by the Department of Co-operative Governance and
Traditional Affairs.
