Sanco impatient with Bela-Bela municipality

Sanco’s memorandum contained demands on improvement of poor service delivery, the increase of rates and taxes without pro- per public participation and the capital projects of previous year’s budgets that remain outstanding or uncompleted.

The protesters accused certain public political figures of corruption and demanded that these allegations be investigated.

Jeremiah Ngobeni, Bela-Bela mayor, was amongst those accused of not paying his electrical bill at a local butchery of which he is the owner.

According to the memorandum the outstanding municipal bill for the butchery was close to R40 000 and was in arrears.

The protesters said that their services were suspended for much smaller outstanding amounts. The municipality did not release a formal response to these allegations.

The municipality was given 14 days to respond to the issues in the memorandum, but failed to do so.

After six calls to the mayor’s office, no response was given and councillors remain mute, said Dengesa Masingi, Sanco spokesperson. Masingi stated that Ngobeni’s lack of response is disgraceful and that Sanco is calling for his dismissal.

“The conduct of the mayor is not acceptable for a person who holds a high position in a municipality. He cannot oversee a town as if it was a tuck shop. We want to send the message to the ANC that the mayor is not serving or listening to the community.”

The disgruntled Sanco executive committee was notified that officials from Ngobeni’s office was willing to meet on Tuesday 3 November at the municipality.

Masingi said a mass meeting with the community was scheduled for Wednesday 4 November at the old community hall in the township, with the mayor in attendance.

The outcome of both meetings was not made known when the newspaper went to print.

The Post asked Kabelo Mosito, municipal spokesperson, for comment on the matter, but received no feedback.