Residents of Malamulele Section D and Mavandla embarked on a total shutdown in demand of transparency in the building of a new tar road on Wednesday, February 14.
According to community leader, Reckson Sambo, they are accusing the Ward Councilor Lazarus Baloyi for not following proper procedures on hiring the Community Liaison Officer , Engineers , Steering Committee and general workers whereby he hired his friends and slept with various workers in order for them to get jobs.
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“As community leaders, we want this project to stop before they follow proper procedures. We were never consulted when these things were done and most people who are employed in this project they are not from both Section D and Mavandla but outsiders. We want it to benefit local people not people who are hired at night by the ward councillor and his friends. This project won’t go ahead before our demands are met,” he said.
“We don’t belong to any ANC factional group, we represent the community and we demand the Mayor to intervene in this matter,” said Sambo.
However SANCO Malamulele Chairman, John Mothombeni, denied the allegations and indicated that proper procedures were followed and all posts were advertised and everyone was called to take part.
“These people are lying, they are just used to fighting with the ward councillor and the Mayor on ANC factional battles…”
“They are not even a constituted structure,” he said.
Mayor of Collins Chabane Municipality, Joyce Bila said they are going to sit down with both community leaders, ward councillor and SANCO to see how they can resolve this issue best.
“As the municipality we will sit down with all affected stakeholders and see how we can resolve this matter,”she said
The project started in January this year.
Residents of Xithlelani Village in Malamulele also participated in total shutdown where they indicated that the new tar road worth R28 million which was completed in December last year was not well done because the municipality rushed the contractor to finish.
The time frame for the completion was six months and the municipality forced the contractor to finish the project in three months.
“This tar road is raw and incomplete because these people were in a rush to eat money because it was in December.
“They must come and fix their mess,”said a community leader.
Residents of Mukhomi and Phaphazela Villages in Malamulele under Collins Chabane Municipality also took to streets in total shutdown in demand of tar Road which they claimed they were promised by the then Thulamela Municipality five years ago but up until to date it’s not built.
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