GTM hosts Q and A session

The session was attended by Mayor Dikeledi Mmetle, Speaker Cassius Machimana, other municipal- and provincial role players, as well as media representatives from a wide range of platforms.

Neville Ndlala, media representative of the GTM was the facilitator. Ndlala opened the event and introduced Speaker Cassius Machimana. Machimana in turn introduced all the attending role players.

“We have here today, members of the Executive Committee, representatives of the traditional authority and municipal officers. This just shows the unity in our community,” Machimana told the attendees.

Mayor Mmetla was next up at the microphone. She told the assembled crowd that the residents of Tzaneen gave her a five year mandate to represent them and to pursue their developmental aspirations and to help them to reach their dreams.

Mmetla and her team took that mandate with pride and vowed with their overwhelming support that they would hit the ground running, by advocating for budgets that have economic value and could contribute to their development.

All this, according to the mayor. “Five years ago my fellow councillors and I took the oath of office with a plan to deliver infrastructure to our communities, as well as a plan to upgrade and maintain new and existing infrastructure.

We had a plan to improve our towns, our villages and our farming communities,” the mayor said. She further stated that they knew from the start they had to ensure that they strengthen their relationship with all stakeholders, both inside and outside government.

Today, all of the seven traditional authorities are represented in the GTM’s Executive Committees and in Council, they also have the right to participate, just like all councillors do.

They are part of every resolution that is taken and those that have already been taken. The GTM has also established functional ward committees in all their wards to help them govern at the grassroots level.

Not only did they establish these functional committees, but they also provided them with the necessary resources and tools to function properly.

Throughout the five years they kept in touch with their people to ensure that they are a party to all the decisions the GTM made about and for them.

“We made this possible through regular mayoral imbizos, our IDP budget consultations, IDP forums, ward quarterly meetings, and many more initiatives,” the mayor said.

Mayor Mmetla announced that an amount of R1 million has been made available for the year of 2017 to help lesser fortunate residents to access tertiary education.

She then mentioned some of the successful projects behind her and her team. After the speeches were finished, the attending journalists had the opportunity to ask the mayor and her team some questions.

The Herald wanted to know two things. Firstly, whether the report of the recent KPMG audit would be released to the media or made public. Secondly, although the George’s Valley road is a SANRAL road, it is still an important feeder road to the GTM’s area of responsibility.

The Herald asked if the GTM are aware that work on the road is currently at a standstill.

On the first question, Speaker Machimane assured the assembled journalists that the report and its findings will be the responsibility of the new incoming council and with the elections less than a month away, residents did not have that long to wait before they could get their eyes on the report.

Mayor Dikeledi Mmetla promised to look into the matter of the George’s Valley road, in order to see what can be done to speed up the work.