Premier Mabuza sways Balfour citizens not to move to Gauteng
24 November 2013
Mpumalanga Premier David
Mabuza has successfully managed to sway the citizens of Dipaliseng
Municipality located in the town of Balfour from demanding to be
moved to Gauteng province.
Recently Balfour citizens
marched and submitted a letter to the president when he recently
visited the area to officially re-open a refurbished local power
station, where they demanded from him to be moved to Gauteng
province because they did not receive better services in Mpumalanga.
Speaking yesterday
[Saturday, 23 November 2013] at Sinethemba township in Balfour,
where he handed over three sponsored houses to the needy families,
Premier Mabuza asked the people to work together with the provincial
government in solving the problems instead of opting to go to
Gauteng.
He said the provincial
government together with the municipality was working hard in
delivering the services and conceded that in some areas service
delivery had not happened as expected.
He humorously told Balfour
citizens they wanted to move because they “hate” him since the
Gauteng Province was also governed by the ruling party.
“I think you want to leave our beautiful province because you hate me as your Premier, and you love Nomvula [Gauteng Premier] more than me. With all that you must remember that we are a very big family of the ANC and we can solve our own problems.
“We are your servants deployed by the ANC to lead you. We may have made mistakes while doing our work, but in order to continue with our mandate we must work together. We are in in a mission and the journey is indeed long. Some people get tired along the way as they complain about certain things while others go to an extent of giving up.
“We must remain united as there cannot be a fruitful struggle without unity. As a provincial government, we will move a bit faster and fix what needs to be fixed. Whether there are storms or not, we must remain united and remember that step-by-step we will get there where we want to be as people of this country,” said Mabuza.
The people at a marquee
unanimously shouted back to Mabuza saying they would no longer
demand to be moved but would discourage others from demanding to be
demarcated to Gauteng.
Dipaliseng Municipality is
in the Gert Sibande District, south west of Mpumalanga and has a
population of more than 40 000 with six wards.
Speaking about the sponsored
houses, Mabuza appreciated the sponsors for partnering with
government in changing the lives of other people for the better.
Receiving the keys for her
new house a 72 year-old gogo Sonto Thwala who had been
staying in a shack for the rest of her life, said she never thought
she would own a house in a life.
Issued by Zibonele Mncwango
Spokesperson: Mpumalanga Premier
Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Office of the Premier
Tel: (013) 766 2453
Mobile: 079 491 0163
E-mail: zmncwango@mpg.gov.za